cinematic corner.

I wish I were a dog stranded in Tom Hardy's house.

Oh man:

I BET SHE WAS.

Here's the entire video.

Gustav is also a killer. Should we not accessorize? :(

So Tom is actually building a pub in his garden for his friends to hang out. Read that sentence again. And then just sigh loudly as hearts appear in your eyes.

Here is the adorable picture of Tom and his wife taking their baby for a walk. The sex of the baby is still a mystery but apparently there was a blue blanket in the stroller!

Tom is currently shooting season 3 of Peaky Blinders and I really hope he has lots of scenes because he was wasted in season 2.

That image is here to make you go 'awwww', because here we go, this week we have a long line of atrocities to talk about.

Ah, JLaw. There was this Vogue interview with Lawrence and I took a peak in it and she talked about her hymen. I got away as fast as I could from that site. I also saw some other article about her where the journalist praised her as "intelligent". No wonder children these days are this stupid and vulgar - this is someone the media is considering to be intelligent. During that Actress roundtable she went "What is Hamlet?". I mean...really?

Protect the youth, for God's sakes.

Can anyone tell me if people responsible for Rotten Tomatoes actually check what sites they are linking to? I know there is this threshold of visits per month a site must get in order be listed there and it's a shocker most of the sites they link to crossed it - I was going through Secrets in their Eyes reviews and out of 8 reviews I've checked out only one could be classified as something barely longer than a snippet. Worse yet, some of these were written in a language so atrocious I could barely call it English. What the hell?

Hey speaking of Secrets in their Eyes - can anyone tell me what was the point of making this remake? The studio could at least make a decent campaign for Roberts for that dumpster scene alone. And there is nothing plus the marketing was atrocious. God knows she could get nominated even just for that, Jane Fonda is in the awards conversation and she was in Youth for 4 minutes. Granted those were the most interesting 4 minutes in this film but that really isn't saying much.

They are remaking Memento. Yep. 15 years seems to be a crossing line. God don't let me see the day they do this to Black Swan.

Metrosexual idol of the many, many women, Ryan Gosling is gonna be in the sequel to Blade Runner. Well, I suppose it could be worse.

Behold, Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain selling their souls for scrap meat. Charlize Theron is getting 7-8 mln dollars for this movie, which I still think is way too little - what did Cruise make for each Mission Impossible? 50 million? - but these suckers are doing this for 1-2 mln dollars. That's just pathetic.

Blunt at least doesn't feel horribly miscast. Ah, Jessica. It's so hard to like you when you are this desperate. This is a woman who is miscast in every other movie she makes. But this time? It feels like Chastain., who is nearing 40, started jumping around and acting like a 5 year old upon seeing a tweet from some random person telling her she should play Merida. Remember that Annie Lebovitz picture with Chastain in the role? I don't know if tweet thing happened, but I tell you what - I'm 99,9% sure. JFC there is even the blue fire like in Brave in that gif of Chastain:

Gods bless Charlize, though. She seems to be having a blast and she looks fantastic:

You know all those people feel bad for actors involved with Marvel, stuck in a franchise, playing the same character over and over again. But Marvel films, other than the story structure, are at least somewhat different when it comes to their visual style. They are light and charming .But this fairytale recycle crap?

This is the same fucking visual effects/color template they've been recycling for YEARS now. It feels charmless. It's ugliness and derivativeness drags everything down. Have some shame if you are gonna recycle all those classics and then make a sequel to them. At least have some creativity, create something new, not fucking teal shades everywhere and monsters who are only scary because of how ridiculously fake looking they are.

They seem to be doing a bit better with second Alice and this as those trailers had some visually nice moments, but goddammit...this is still repulsive.

Look if Disney/Universal/other studios doing that dealt with some sort of cash grabbing entertainment for adults - I don't know, showed naked Hardy in every movie they made - take my money. But this is children you are using, stuffing that uninspired crap in front of them. How are their imagination supposed to be developing when every single movie you put out there is the same?

Also have they ripped off GoT with banging in the cave scene?

So....Oscar talk. The Martian, is apparently comedy according to HFPA, and Rooney Mara and Alicia Vikander's roles, in Carol and the Danish Girl respectively are lead roles. Well this is...all bad. The Martian is even less of a comedy than Birdman. I mean this is just not fucking fair - for years now they have been putting dramas with just a tiny bit of comedy in them into Best Comedy category and they are snubbing actual real comedies. And this means Spy will get snubbed so I'm gonna be furious, As for Vikander and Mara I don't give a damn about this being a category fraud - put them in fucking supporting so that the rightful winner Furiosa has at least the chance of getting nominated.

So to sum up - JLaw - role model, The Martian - comedy, teal everywhere and cheap uninspired CGI - good.

We are doomed.

OK time for the good news!

Scream Queens! You know I've never seen a single episode of Glee so before this show I had absolutely no idea who Lea Michele is but I have to say I am very impressed with her acting. She was especially phenomenal in this last episode in her creepy scene with Chad. The entire episode was just epic and those Japanese ghost stories actually creeped me out a little bit. And how about #5's sparkly furry coat? That was just fabulous. And Emma in that pink bow dress pushing Chanel #6 off the stairs was just downright epic. I think either #5 - who escaped the Red Devil 3 times now even though he could easily killed her - or #6 which is just so creepy - is the other killer. 4 episodes left and they include Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas episodes! So much fun!

So I'm really psyched for Krampus otherwise known as that movie which trailer was played before Crimson Peak and confused the shit out of me. There are new TV spots out and they look so awesome. The gingerbread guy thing is just amazing and Berta from Two and Half Men is kicking ass as expected. Also I've recently discovered the Comic Con display for the film and it's so brilliant. Look closely and notice the gingerbread guys. I'm really hoping we are finally gonna have 1. a brilliant horror film, which would raise the tally to 3 this year (along with It Follows and Bone Tomahawk) 2. a new Christmas classic, cause we didn't have any of those since 2003's Love Actually.

I finally got to see the new episode of Fargo and it was amazing. I think this current season is even better than the previous one. And seriously, Nick Offerman. He shouldn't just be in all movies and TV series, he should be like, our leader. He is just so awesome. That scene were he strolled back into precinct after seeing those armed guys absolutely killed me. And man was that a tense episode, I was so scared they'll kill him!

I didn't even know this was something to look forward to but there is a new comedy with Melissa McCarthy on the horizon! It's called The Boss and the first trailer is very funny.

m.brown reviews Once which I assume is soul crushing

Mark, just like I did, hated the atrocity known as Knock Knock

and MettelRay liked The Final Girls much more than I did

VanishedFrontier reviews very charming Man from UNCLE

Brittani praises Carey Mulligan's performance in Suffragette

Alex shares 59 things he loves about Quentin Tarantino's magnificent Jackie Brown

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Would you look at that. Cause I've been unable to stop for a while.

These are the pictures from the set of Taboo, Tom's new show which he is shooting right now. Not only is he still gonna have that glorious beard in this role too but...

....HE IS LITERALLY SITTING ON A WHITE HORSE.

I think this is an attempt to murder the entire population of women. I mean the only thing that would make this better was if he 1. was shirtless 2. was holding a puppy.

...and now I'm imagining it.

...

....

......

All right, let's move on.

I have been rewatching Tom's scenes in Peaky Blinders. He seems to have finished shooting season 3, which was fast? I just hope they will finally give him more to do, he had less than 10 scenes last season and let's face it they were the best things about this season. Would you look at that?

And this?

It's a good thing you cannot gif a voice. Those would be deadly if I could do that.

Yep, I'm making edits of Tom being intense now. This will be the end of me.

So Legend which I was too afraid to see in the cinema (to avoid single woman faints/dies during Tom Hardy movie headline) got the most critics seem to masturbate to this performance TV spots I've seen this year - see this one.

The Revenant reactions! The movie was screened and we know some interesting things - there is apparently a 40 minute long period with absolutely no dialogue, Leo has less 10 lines in English in the entire movie (which means we heard half of his lines in the trailer), Hardy speaks a lot and is epic and the film is very gory. That it was gory was well known but let just hope the Academy is not gonna act like a bunch of panicky little girls yet again. Just give Leo an Oscar before he murders you silently, people.

Also apparently some of the voters are butthurt because Tom said he thinks the whole Oscar thing is like putting a hat on a dog. Some are saying they will vote for Dano instead because of that comment. So in case you ever think you are being petty just think of how petty the Oscar voters are.

God I hope they all get dick punched like Inarittu ~~probably~~ did.

No, they won't. Tom has no time for these basic bitches.

Also Jeffrey Wells is a sexist prick and can go fuck himself.

Here is the new trailer with original score in the background - this sounds so heavenly!

It's Black Friday today so above is essentially me upon seeing all those deals on clothes.

There truly are no limits to HBO's idiocy. Someone on my GoT board posted this pic and I'm like OK so it's a fanmade and then it turns out it isn't, it's real. Like, they actually have that shit on the building's billboard and up on the official website. What the shit, HBO? You go out of your way having actors tell people this dude is dead for good and now you plastered him on the first poster? How high are your marketing people? How high are your interns, who I assume you leave in charge of artwork/promo stuff - because there is really no explanation for this atrocity? And what the fuck are you high on? Is it my fucking tears since it's year 4 of Stoneheart watch?

Also this is so badly made. I see dozens of better fan art edits every day. And the most depressing thing is that this is not even the worst poster they had, this is probably the best one since season 1 but this is not saying much. I have better blood brushes in my photoshop.

It gets better as it is, apparently, the picture from season 3 of the show. This is the biggest show on this planet, can you believe how lazy these turds are being?

Amateurs.

I cannot even blame D&D for this because I'm fairly certain they had no part in this. It physically hurts me not to be able to bitch about them this week.

Seriously my God Scream Queens upped their shade game again this week:

Chanel talking about pushing Hester down the stairs:

Chanel on the phone with her mother:

So much good stuff.

The episode was so much fun and they are really throwing so many red herrings for us to theorize who the killer is. I think they even had every single person in the house check the turkey (which in the end turned out to be a human head obviously) to throw us even more off. Personally there is so much talk on the board for the show about Murphy probably going to copy the famous and creepy as fuck Sleepaway Camp twist so now I'm kinda on board with the idea that Pete is one of the killers (the consensus seems to be there are two more).

So I've been watching Downton Abbey again. Everything to do with Edith makes me wanna jump off a building. Jesus, that poor girl. Watching her stare at her kid because she cannot raise it herself is heartbreaking,. Meanwhile Mary is slutting it up in hotels. I'm very fond of Michelle Dockery and I think she gave the most brilliant performance in Wright's Karenina (hopefully one day I have the time to write about it) but Mary is the worst. I'm on season 5 now so I'm probably gonna reach Matthew Goode debut episode tonight. Good stuff.

But the best reason to watch the show is obviously the Queen of Shade:

What a treasure she is.

I have half of my Things I Love about Fury Road posts (there will be 2) made and the new Raising Star post completed but I actually had no time to even add the finishing touches and publish it. I was half waiting for people to comment on last Rambling Friday a bit more (which didn't happen) and hoping I'll have the energy to do that the next day (which also didn't happen). So what is it now? 4 posts per month?

Oh and I cannot actually remember when is the last time I saw a movie. This is bad.

Meanwhile everyone lost their shit over that Civil War trailer and I was sitting here at 6:15 AM - which is the time I usually have the time to catch up the news as I wait for my mascara to dry (yeah I'm kinda busy these days) and being all "so what else is new?". This looks like another boom-boom-boom + let's have Black Widow be totally boring + cliche story all over again. And where the fuck was Ant Man?

However would you look at that?:

Do you know what this is? It's Robert Downey Jr. remembering he used to be more than a guy who cashes in checks. This is him remembering "my God I used to act once" and trying to do that again. So at least that is exciting.

MettelRay writes about the problems she has with movies about women written by women

Keith reviews Spotlight

Alex lists 52 things he loves about Kill Bill Vol. 1

Josh shared 10 underrated performances he is greatful for in 2015

Brittani shares her thoughts on Indie Spirit Awards Nominations

m.brown reviews The Night Before

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Justin Kurzel's Macbeth, which is one of the most cinematic Shakespearean works, opens with the still shot of a dead child laying on the ground, surrounded by heather. The film's tone is set from the very start - as raw, grim and filled with great sadness. This is a dark, bloody affair and an unpleasant one too.

If only it was a better movie.

The big issue with the film is the fact that while the film makers took risk, which is always admirable, not many of those risks paid off. It's commendable that Kurzel tries so many things but on the other hand it also makes the film feel quite messy. And when you add Shakespearean lines, all the visual trickery and Kurzel's script adding more confusion? It's really difficult not to get lost.

As inspired as Kurzel's directing is, depending on the moment it either lets the movie reach great heights or digs a hole for it to sink in. For every brilliant choice - the staging of king's murder, the silent, visual depiction of Macbeth's horror during the battle, the truly inspired (and an actual improvement over source material) way in which the forest comes to the castle in the form of ash - there is a bad one. There are several scenes where I'm not even sure what I was supposed to be looking at and I don't know if I want to find the answers.

The source material is about ambition and the consequences of it. The film as a depiction of that fails completely. It has several scenes depicting it beautifully but as a whole it's really hard to tell what the characters or even the film itself want to be. It is only thanks toFassbender's riveting performance that it all works. The film never tells us why Macbeth and especially his wife want power so much. There is no cause given to the film's intrigue. The children theme, while very clever and inspired, has no strings to characters' actions, so the film's central conflict is devoid of scriptural spine.

Then there is the issue of not making a lot of sense at times - very early on in the movie I had to let go of looking for any logic when it comes to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth - the film invents several things, the worst of which is having the king's son actually catch Macbeth red-handed and then him, without uttering a single word, escaping after Macbeth let's out words of....what was it really? For either of the characters to do what they have done makes absolutely no sense in that moment.

Then the writers cannot decide what they want Lady Macbeth to be. Is she a woman who suffers because she cannot bear children? Is she an evil schemer who wants position? Is she someone who wants to manipulate her husband by using her body as a weapon in her a disposal? The script throws all those things like wet towels at the door and neither of them sticks. In the effect all those ideas are underdeveloped, at times even contradictory. There simply isn't enough of this character in the movie to properly look into either of those ideas, let alone all of them.

It's quite embarrassing to witness - you can tell what Kurzel was going for, especially in botched Out, damned spot scene (oh God, how they ruined it!), but it absolutely doesn't work. In the effect Cotillard wanders from scene to scene and is almost completely wasted. She has some very good moments - like her first speaking scene which is extremely powerful, she is kneeling and talking about Macbeth's letter with such force and ambition you think her determination is gonna tear the walls down - but she pales in comparison to Fassbender and the way her character is written is truly aimless. That she is French was not an issue at all, the problem is all in the writing and directing choices.

Fassbender walks away with the film easily. I always considered the role of Lady Macbeth to be meatier of the two but that is not the case here. It does help that Kurzel has a much better vision for what he wants to achieve here, showing Macbeth as a man surrounded by death, war and blood that seem to wither any decency he had in him.

Fassbender has not been this good since Shame (I have yet to see Steve Jobs but I'll be surprised if he does better there) - his anguish strikes as powerful as his madness and certain scenes, mainly the one where he tells his wife that his friend and his son need to die too, are truly masterful. He is so good in the role and portrays the depths of Macbeth's madness so intensely you are able to swallow the dumbest writing choices - like having him personally set fire to Macduff's family. In fact this film often feels like the case of ignorant director not spending enough time to actually look into progression of mental disorders he is portraying and an actor of great insight providing powerful work regardless.

At times you really feel sorry for Macbeth, especially in the scenes where he sees the young boy who has fallen in the battle - there is such longing inFassbender's eyes and such care there, he shows his desire for a child so much better than Cotillard's misguided character. That you still care at that point is only thanks to Fassbender managing to show that perhaps all of this started when he was fighting nobly, all of this war and all of this pain starting the infection in his mind.

The supporting cast does beautifully, especially unrecognizable Paddy Considine as Banquo. He was so wonderful in the role yet thanks to the make up and huge beard I spent the whole movie wondering why this actor, who plays the role so well, seems so familiar until I was enlightened in the end credits. Sean Harris was also very good as Macduff as was David Thewlis who managed to show the kindness of his character in very few scenes he had. Elizabeth Debicki has very short screen time but she is not easy to forget as Lady Macduff.

The film really is unflinching - it's not extremely gory but it is raw and realistic. I don't think I've ever seen a broken nose injury shown as realistically as it does here. Blood pours all around but it is perhaps the vast shots where Fassbender only stands in one small part of them, showing the vast emptiness around him, that are the most affecting. The film uses a great deal of visual tricks - slow motion intertwined with normally paced shots in the first battle scene, fast motion to show Macbeth standing in the middle of the room, almost motionless, editing together a lot of similarly looking shots of him being unable to sleep, showing powerfully just how monotonous and undefeated his guilt has become. There is also a whole lot of simply outstanding individual shots - the ghost of the boy almost invisible and fading away instantly coming to mind.

At times the wonderful framing of the movie - cinematography, editing and Jed Kurzel's tremendous, moody and dark score - add so much to the film, especially in the scene where Macbeth kills the king which is ferociously intertwined with shots of the praying Lady Macbeth and a horse neighing loudly during the storm. Then there is the final sequence which is truly gorgeous to look at and very, very clever, both in writing and in execution.

Macbeth could have been a great film, but it's merely a good one. But it did bring us fantastic performance by Fassbender and is definitely one of the better adaptations of the tragedy, that is yet to receive the adaptation it deserves.

Macbeth (2015, 113 min)
Plot: Macbeth, a Thane of Scotland, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.
Director: Justin Kurzel
Writers: Jacob Koskoff, Michael Lesslie,Todd Louiso (screenplay), William Shakespeare (play)
Stars: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Sean Harris
RELATED POSTS:
;

Track: Turn Hell Hound

Artist: Jed Kurzel

Movie: Macbeth

I have never seen this gif before. I have seen the glorious Esquire spread but I have never seen THAT before last Saturday when a kind - or mischievous - soul showed me that.

Look into his eyes.

They are smiling.

He KNOWS.

I am now convinced that I am invincible for I looked upon that gif and I have survived.

Though I still think I may collapse when I finally see Legend. My fear is that I will see a bit of it and wake up in the hospital.

Now let's just stare at it for an obscene amount of time.

Seriously I probably spent several hours looking at that thing.

That is too much information, isn't it?

Oh, fuck it.

And here we have new pictures from The Revenant.

Look at all those actors, posing normally:

But not Tom.

Oh no.

Tom is gonna do this ------->

Lord, have mercy.

Tom was nominated this week for Legend at Satellite Awards. He was not however nominated for The Revenant. This race is already an emotional roller-coaster to me. Please for the love of God Academy nominate him for something so that Leo hugs him on the way up to get his Oscar.

I guarantee you Winslet is gonna be nominated for a Globe just for that. Just so that she could be there in case he wins and pull a Sharon.

There is more to Hardy being there-are-no-words amazing. God help us there is more. The white horse returned on the set of Taboo:

I just love his look here too. Never shave, Tom. Never shave.

I already dread watching this.

And yes. He found another dog to cuddle.

*sigh* I wish I were a dog.

Speaking of dogs I bought Gustav festive outfits for the holidays:

I've also made this gifset of him protecting his new holiday toy:

So I saw Macbeth in cinema this week and people brought snacks to it. What the hell?

Another movie and still no Revenant trailer! What the fuck?! Although, that one time they showed Legend trailer I got seriously dizzy, so maybe that is a good thing.

The Oscar season is a fucking mess already. NBR rewarded Fury Road as the best movie of the year but there and on NYFCC there is no love for The Revenant. I don't know what is happening. The blessing is that Lawrence and Redmayne haven't won anything yet but seriously I want Hardy, Leo and Lubezki to get all the love.

The reviews for The Revenant started pouring in. I'm too nervous to read them so I just do search for Hardy thing. " Hardy far exceeds the basic requirement for this role, which was to portray a man so despicable that the audience desperately wants to see him get his just dessserts."

Yeah unless he kills a dog in this, we're good here.

Scream Queens!

That episode was amazing. And next week is the finale! There is still no news of renewal which is so depressing to me because this is seriously my new favorite show that is currently airing.

There is this hypocrisy going on that I have to talk about. Sarah Paulson, 40, is dating Holland Taylor, who is 72. And all the comments remark how beautiful it is. But whenever an older man dates a younger woman, people always leave spiteful comments. What exactly is the difference?! Why woman-woman relationship is something to praise in this situation and a man always gets to be called a pig and a woman a gold digger in man-woman relationship like that? People are the worst.

But hands down, the dumbest folks are the ones who came up with this 'bear rape'thing about The Revenant. When you see a bear attack a man and it looks like rape to you you should do one thing. Go to a fucking shrink immediately. I mean I saw many dumb comments but this one takes the cake. Seriously it's one thing to think that but to actual go and claim that you think Dicaprio is raped by a bear in this movie? What?!

Oh my God. Have you guys seen that new Batman v Superman or whatever the fuck it is called trailer? It's so bad. Eisenberg is just an embarrassment to witness, that chick who plays Wonder Woman is so skinny and bland and Cavill is trying to emote so much but obviously he fails:

Oh Henry. The Gods gave you looks, but they haven't given you any charisma.

Batfleck vs Supermeh board was fucking hilarious yesterday:

- they should have done what Marvel did and introduce characters in separate movies!
- DC said fuck the foreplay, straight to anal!

There is also "Still looks like Snyder pissed all over the lense"comment which made me laugh so hard.

There was a trailer released today for Shane Black's new comedy The Nice Guys with Gosling and Crowe and it looks so funny!:

HBO marketing staff aka high interns decided to vomit another promo material which kinda heavily focuses on Jon 'it's just a memorial image' Snow:

But this is slightly better than the last year teaser - we actually get new lines here, in the beginning said by Max von Sydow himself and they included the glimpse of RW in it so hopefully YEAR 4 OF HYPE IS WHEN IT HAPPENS.

Dell lists 25 best films of 2014

Alex features the amazing Joe Pesci in his In Character series

Ruth has written some really lovely things about Hardy in Legend

m.brown is a great husband who takes her wife to see Nicholas Sparks' adaptations. Here is his review of The Longest Ride

Brittani reviews The Night Before

Courtney and MettelRay review Brooklyn

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While my awards in this season will be later than usual - thank you for releasing The Revenant as late as January 29th :/ - I can start already because I'm assuming other than some mind blowing promos for the Oscar films that are gonna drop soon there won't be any new, potentially amazing, trailers. Some of the trailers released this year like "Krampus" and "The Nice Guys" informed me of existence of those movies and made me wanna see them, some like "Hail Cesar" used amazing music and some like "The Hateful Eight" trailers just didn't click for me. I'm also making that list because recently Playlist published theirs and The Revenant was FOURTH. I almost puked in my mouth when I saw that.

So here are the best trailers of 2015:

10. The Witch
The intense, creepy trailer immediately peaks your interest and reveals just enough without spoiling anything, even if we do see the titular character in the end of the trailer.

Best moment: Peek a boo scene

9. Sicario "Hitman" trailer
I'm not into this kind of I music but this song is terrific and goes so well with the footage, focusing on the biggest asset of the movie which is Benicio Del Toro's performance.

Best moment: Ending the trailer with the movie's most memorable shot

8. Macbeth

The trailer, in second part set to wonderful track "Lunacy" by Swans is terrific - it mixes the fast motion and slow motion shots from the film very effectively, it actually shows more consistent image of Lady Macbeth than what is in the film and overall really creates a promise of the movie far more energetic than what the film actually is.

Best moment: Wisely, the trailer uses the best shot of the film - a single tear falling from Macbeth's eye

7. The Martian

I may actually like that trailer more than the movie. Set to seriously awesome remix of Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower the trailer is exciting, emotional and epic while the movie sometimes flat lines.

Best moment: The mix of music's most epic moments with Mark's lines and all those shots of people waiting for him to be saved

6. Mad Max: Fury Road

Starting the trailer with Furiosa walking in the canyon and then proceeding to show more of the film, with those flares exploding in the sky perfectly set to the music and then switching to Tom Holkenborg's masterpiece of original score - the trailer is very inventive and gives you the taste of so far, the best movie of the year.

Best moment: 'What a lovely day' line cut with those quick shots from the film.

5. The Revenant "My Son" promo

I heard some criticism for that one, that this makes the movie look sentimental which it isn't but I do love that promo. Apparently it uses the original score from the film, which sounds gorgeous. I love how this entire promo is put together, especially the synchronization of Leo's fight scenes to the music.

Best moment: I saw that promo cut as International trailer a week back and it didn't have that Hardy line. I was watching this expecting it to be the same and then he appeared and his delivery floored me. Apparently this is from the best scene in the film, according to some reviewers.

4. Legend

Set to the impossibly catchy song "I'm so Sorry" by Imagine Dragons this is also known as that trailer which almost made me faint. LOVE FIGHT LIVE RULE montage is so dope, the music stopping to highlight Hardy's hilarious shootout line is a great moment and of course there's that moment when the music is slow and he says "I can't do that, he's my brother" when I thought the sheer power of Hardy's glare is gonna melt off the screen

Best moment: The final quick montage ending with Reggie holding the bouquet.

3. Suicide Squad Comic Con trailer
This is one brilliant trailer. Very slow, but fantastic build up to our first glimpses at the Squad and that chilling reveal of the Joker in the end. All set to "I Started a joke" song which is just such an inspired choice. And you gotta love how much of Harley we get to see here.

Best moment: Harley mimicking shooting a gun while holding a baseball bat

2. The Revenant teaser
Best moment - that the trailer actually starts using the breathing sound when we see DiCaprio's breath appear in the air and then it keeps on going, building up and building up - and you've gotta love that long take in the end

1. The Revenant trailer
This is the best damn trailer I've seen in my life. Every time I go to the cinema nowadays and that trailer doesn't play it bums me out (again wasn't there today before Krampus). That amazing breathing track is used in here too and I just hope it's on the score. Not only do they feature just enough of the bear attack scene but the shots chosen here are amazing - Gleeson with that rifle, the shot of Hardy slowly turning his face which is catching the light from the fire, Leo crawling out of the grave as Hardy says "he was buried right", that shot of Hardy when Leo says "he's afraid" and that insane, thunderous combination of quick shots of footage and THAT amazing track which just keeps going and going and going until you feel your heart is gonna explode.

Hardy in The Revenant

It was such a beautiful time. When you used to get excited about Awards season, while lying to yourself that people who really deserve the recognition are gonna win, or at the very least get nominated. It is no more for me this year.

Tom Hardy, arguably biggest break out star in 2015, who appeared in 5 different films and one popular TV series did not get a single SAG or Golden Globe nomination this year. That is unpleasant. But the behind the scenes stuff and the fact that HFPA nominated both Mad Max and The Revenant for Best Drama, while ignoring Hardy, whose work is integral to those movies' success, is just ugly.

What happened when it comes to SAG? Well, this is actually pathetic. There are members of SAG saying that at the time they were voting they did not even see The Revenant, Joy or Hateful Eight. There were screenings for those, sure, but the screeeners have not arrived. You may say that this must be false because DiCaprio was nominated. Well according to one member....he is nominated based on the trailer and hype alone.

These are the people who are supposed to honor fellow actors. Instead of pushing the deadline for every single movie's screener to arrive, they vote based on hype and trailers. Again - pathetic.

SAG acting nominees:
Male Actor In A Leading Role – Motion Picture
Bryan Cranston – “Trumbo” /. Leonardo DiCaprio – “The Revenant” /Johnny Depp – “Black Mass” / Michael Fassbender – “Steve Jobs” / Eddie Redmayne – “The Danish Girl”

Female Actor In A Leading Role – Motion Picture
Cate Blanchett – “Carol” / Brie Larson – “Room” / Helen Mirren – "Woman In Gold" / Saoirse Ronan – “Brooklyn” / Sarah Silverman – "I Smile Back"

Male Actor In A Supporting Role – Motion Picture
Christian Bale – "The Big Short" / Idris Elba – “Beasts Of No Nation” / Mark Rylance – “Bridge Of Spies” / Michael Shannon – "99 Homes"/ Jacob Tremblay – “Room”

Female Actor In A Supporting Role – Motion Picture
Rooney Mara – “Carol” / Helen Mirren – "Trumbo" / Rachel McAdams – “Spotlight” /.Alicia Vikander – “The Danish Girl” / Kate Winslet – “Steve Jobs”

Woody and BIFA award

And Globes? You recall that one time they nominated The Tourist just to get Jolie and Depp there? They love to make sure the star is there in all their attention whoring glory. Posing, smiling, pretending they actually deserve to be nominated.

A story time. Last Sunday - two events in London. British Independent Spirit Awards, where Hardy is nominated for Legend. And The Revenant screening.

Hardy chooses to hang out with his friend Leo Dicaprio, and while he is wearing jeans and a T-shirt he wears all the time he attends the screening. Meanwhile over at BIFA, he wins for Legend. Domhall Gleeson reads a sweet and appreciative e-mail from Tom while accepting the award on his behalf and yesterday Tom posts a picture of the award being sniffed by his adorable dog Woody.

Here are Globes acting nominees:
Best Actor - Drama
Bryan Cranston - Trumbo / Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant / Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs / Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl / Will Smith - Concussion

Best Actress - Drama
Cate Blanchett - Carol / Brie Larson - Room / Rooney Mara - Carol / Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn / Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl

Best Actor - Comedy/Musical
Christian Bale - The Big Short / Steve Carell - The Big Short / Matt Damon - The Martian /Al Pacino - Danny Collins / Mark Ruffalo - Infinitely Polar Bear

Best Actress - Comedy/Musical
Jennifer Lawrence - Joy / Melissa McCarthy - Spy / Amy Schumer - Trainwreck / Maggie Smith - The Lady In The Van / Lily Tomlin - Grandma

Best Supporting Actor
Paul Dano - Love & Mercy / Idris Elba - Beasts Of No Nation / Mark Rylance - Bridge Of Spies / Michael Shannon - 99 Homes / Sylvester Stallone - Creed

Best Supporting Actress
Jane Fonda - Youth / Jennifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight / Helen Mirren - Trumbo / Alicia Vikander - Ex Machina / Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs

Hardy in Legend

Look at this bunch. Previous nominees. New to the awards people who were relentlessly promoting, not even their movies or performances, but themselves the whole year. And Jane freaking Fonda.

Fonda is in Youth in 2 scenes. First one lasts several minutes, the other? Maybe 30 seconds. But she is famous. And she spent the last few months appearing in roundtables and giving interviews. And surprise, surprise. Here she is, nominated.

Let me tell you why I'm not even waiting for Oscar nominations to post this. Because I am 99% sure Hardy is not getting nominated. Not because he was omitted by SAG and Globes. No. It's because he doesn't do roundtables. He doesn't appear in American talk shows talking about how difficult it was tho shoot the films, how hard, how miserable. He simply acts. And that is apparently too little to get nominated for acting.

I'm not saying that people who got in gave bad performances. But I am saying that most of the people who got nominated didn't get there just on the merit of how good the performance is. Hardy got raves for Legend. Legend that was screened in...4 theaters in entire US.

And then there is this -

A while back Hardy gave the interview where he essentially said him at the Oscars would be like putting a tutu on an alligator or a hat on a dog. A cute metaphor to illustrate that he is an actor and he doesn't really care about glamorous stuff. But the Academy members? There are actual quotes floating around that because of this comment they will not vote for him. Because they feel offended.

There is still a tiny chance. There is BAFTA - and I hope they are less petty than Oscar voters, because when Hardy won for Rising Star he did not attend, instead choosing to spend that evening with his family - and remember Hill with Wolf? He got in, almost out of the blue, and scored that Oscar nomination.

Look I am happy about some of these - Carell being nominated and Stallone getting in for his lovely work in Creed - but Redmayne? Vikander? Helen Mirren? What?

And let me conclude with this - even when they get something right, they spoil it. To nominate Mad Max and yet not acknowledge its heart, in the form of Charlize Theron's beautiful performance?

That's just mad.

All that is left is to watch Globes and enjoy Ricky Gervais hosting it. And hope for DiCaprio to finally win. Because I'm fairly certain if he doesn't for this movie, it can be considered sadism.

First of all, all hail feral Hardy!

And HFPA and SAG?

You people are dead to me.

Thank you Jesus! Tom has finally started to promote the movie - himself I mean, because come on the actors showing up to those events just do that because they want to be nominated or in this case it was either 'seriously Tom, do something nice for awards people' from his agent or 'bro, let's hang out' from Leo. I really do hope Leo attends talk shows and talks about the making of the movie. And praises Tom. And tells us if he really was inside that dead horse.

Anyways they both attended BAFTA screening of the film on December 6th.

Look.

Look how cute!

I love the fact that this is what he wears to the screening for Awards people. That's not even a new shirt!

On the same day there was a ceremony for British Independent Film Awards. I tuned it just in time to see Best Actor category and Tom won (Legend folks, Legend)! He wasn't there, though and Domhall Gleeson accepted the award on his behalf. He was hilarious. He said that he had nothing to do with Legend but he worked with Tom on The Revenant and Tom made his life "a living hell" on the set of that one but Tom asked him to read an email. The email obviously started with "this is fucking awesome". But it was super sweet.

His award arrived safely and Woody got to play with it:

I think he may actually be starting to enjoy this whole Awards thing. Which is ripping my heart apart because of SAG and HFPA. Who I repeat - are dead to me.

I rewatched This Means War during the weekend:

Oh man. That movie is so stupid but it was worth seeing:

Oh, is it worth seeing.

I also made the first gifset out of several I want to make with Tom's best moments in Peaky Blinders. The Drop may be my favorite performance of his but Alfie Solomons from Peaky Blinders is definitely my favorite character he ever played. Tom is hysterical here, they really should give him more humorous roles in movies:

Some of his moments in the show are like something straight out of old Guy Ritchie films or something Quentin Tarantino would have made back when he was in his top form in the 90's..It's amazing that he mixes so much humor into the role of someone so violent and quite deranged and is funny and scary at the same time.

Richard Ayoade was hosting BIFA, I haven't seen more than few categories but it looks like he was as usual hilarious:

This is Inarittu's statement about his Golden Globe nomination: "I can’t believe this time last year we were in Calgary shooting The Revenant, and right now I’m in London and just heard the good news! I’m thrilled for our incredible cast and crew. Any nominations for this film are an acknowledgement of them, their hard work and great passion. I’m especially happy for Leo, his emotional performance and what he does is truly remarkable. This film is very personal for me; so I think I will have a drink with my daughter tonight to toast to everyone who was a part of it. Thank you to the HFPA, this is very nice.”

He is thanking the crew. When I read that yesterday I laughed for several minutes. Hey, remember when they quit and made this as a representation of him? --->

I am 99% sure Gervais is gonna go after Leo with that bear rape thing. Stallone being there is also gonna be irresistible to him. But if he goes after the nightmarish duo of Lawrence and Schumer - he is not just a great comedian, the man will be a God in my eyes.

Scream Queens finale was controversial to say the least. We thought one of the characters was Red Devil because someone claimed they have inside info and Ryan did surprise, by going with not surprising. The killer turned out to be the most obvious person but thanks to that leaked fake info pointing to someone else I was still surprised.

That moment was everything:

I liked the two final episodes very much. I thought Jaime Lee Curtis last scene in the season was her best one and one good thing came out of Globes - she was nominated for her performance, so that's terrific. Man am I gonna miss this show - the awesome 80s/90s music, the outfits, the Chanels....I really hope it gets renewed and they return. I cannot remember the last time I had this much fun while watching a TV series.

I saw Krampus this week which wasn't as funny as I hoped it would be but it was pretty damn original. In spite of not delivering on having Berta there in the house, the moment when jack in the box hugged that elf slayed me. The film while not as witty as Trick'r'Treat, which I should really watch again because I feel I'm talking out of my ass here, given that the last time I saw it it was few years back for Halloween, was really very unique and ballsy. The cinematography was really gorgeous, the Christmassy atmosphere was on point and the creature design was spectacular and very inspired. But it sucks a little Dougherty is making us wait for the sequel to show Krampus' real face - in the movie he was wearing a grotesque Santa mask. But it looks like there will be the sequel - the movie made it budget back in 3 days in theaters, just in USA.

I was also going to start The Leftovers but Christmas shopping got in the way, so that will happen this weekend.

Have you guys seen that atrocious trailer and poster for Tarzan? It looks so bad. Why are they so hell bent on making it look like Planet of the Apes movie? But let's face it, we are all gonna see it for Skarsgard and Robbie.

In movie news - Cate Blanchettwill be in the third Thor movie. Marvel got her to. It's like..Body snatchers or some shit.They are just getting all those great actors....to what end? Should we be afraid?

Well, DC should that's for sure.

Ruth shares her thoughts on SAG and GG nominations

Keith reviews Brooklyn

Dell for some ungodly reason saw 50 shades and reviewed it

Kevin reviews Room

m.brown reviews The Good Dinosaur

Courtney writes about It Follows

Brittani shares her thoughts about Golden Globe nominations

Alex lists 36 things he loves about Death Proof

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oh my God.

oh my God....

OH MY GOD.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

This week saw the premiere of Star Wars, BFCA nominations and many others. But the most important thing to me and therefore the most important thing in this post?

Tom Hardy's very presence and especially his three-piece suit on The Revenant premiere 2 days ago.

I think we are now past the point of no return....

... from this particular mountain ...

....of being incredibly good looking.

For we have seen the peak.

Do you think at some point he stopped while he was dressing himself and figured 'this is too much' ? Like, he looked in the mirror and thought "my God, what if someone sees me and dies"?

I think he should have done that.

This is merciless.

I have a dog, Tom. I cannot fucking die.

I'm just gonna sit in the corner for a while and scream into a pillow.

We also got actual interviews too. Here.And here he is with Leo.

And an interview for Variety which is good, but he also says he did not hit Inarittu. Right, Tom. Just like I did not black out upon seeing that premiere get up. I'm assuming his agent had the "shut up Daniel Craig" kind of talk with him. Or it's just Tom being clever - 'no I didn't hit him....but I choked the shit out of him". Plenty of gold in this interview too - from fear of the horses, my realization oh shit he is on the horse in The Revenant and doesn't it just add up to my risk of fainting?, and a gem in Tom saying he was pissed off on the set of The Revenant because he missed on Suicide Squad and the paychecks he would get for it. When someone says what they think with such a disarming honesty, it's just lovely. Because why shouldn't Hardy get tons of cash?

Check out the pictures from the premiere, especially look at that girl behind Leo:

And here is the after party. I'm just gonna say this - that button, dude:

There is the first clip from the Revenant out. I just gonna give up right now on trying to understand how the hell did they film this thing.

We had some very, very good things happen nominations wise - Fury Road scored a whopping 13 at BFCA, including the nominations - double actually - for Theron and a double nomination for Hardy - best actor in action film and best supporting actor. Then in Toronto Tom won for Legend. Got a double nomination in Houston. Triple nomination from London Critics - Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, British Actor of the year. Nominated for best supporting actor in Phoenix. Nominated for the same in Kansas. And Legend is on Oscar make up shortlist so they cannot use 'we didn't see it' excuse. My God. This is nerve-wrecking. It's such an insanely close race this year.

BFCA nominations are so far my favorite this season so with the heavy heart I link the following - apparantly they are taking additional vote to determine where Star Wars should be nominated. I'd comment but are there really any words that would be sufficient for this situation?

Tim Burton had a date with Eva Green in London. At best it means we are getting another shitty movie from him which will waste Eva's time. At worst? Yeah, answer yourself that.

Just as the Batman v Superman board was the place to be after the trailer was released, this week the funniest place on the web was The Force Awakens board. There were such funny things written there, like that comment about what JJ Abrams probably thinks of original cast being in new one "I get to kill off these white, old fucks". Here is another one - "JJ writes people as if he sees them only in theory. Like he's an alien who's heard of human beings, but has to guess what we're actually like.".

I think he makes entertaining movies but there is no denying there is truth here. Watching his stuff is like watching puppets in a fun show. Star Trek is just basically something shiny to look at when you don't want to think or care too much.

And check that one out:

"Ford kind of looks like a fragile elderly woman in this. One of them lefties with short hair and no bra. You know, the ones who knit sweaters while sipping tea out of clumsy ceramic cups while fondly remembering the 60’s.
- I bet he'd probably still kick your arse
- I’d throw some Werther's Original and a pair of comfy slippers at him, and tell him his son’s on the phone."

Yeah after that one I laughed. A lot.

The film is actually getting outstanding reviews but I wonder how much of it is the gratitude for this simply not being as awful as the new trilogy. But let's face it, there aren't many things that are worse than the Hayden shit show + Jar Jar. To this day I'm fucking astonished no one at any point realized how atrocious what they were doing was and just yelled STOP.

I have never seen original trilogy. Yep. I do however plan on seeing it before seeing new one. And since I assume TFA will get BP nomination and I'm gonna need to see it anyways, perhaps the next 3 days is a good time to catch up.

Have you guys seen that newThe Witch poster? It's spectacular. My favorite poster in a very long time, gorgeous, haunting and so awesome.

Katherine Waterston is gonna play the lead role in Prometheus' sequel. i would have preferred Ferguson but this is also a very good choice.

NYT Great Performers features our Furiosa

I tried getting into The Leftovers. I saw the pilot episode and as outstanding as that riot sequence was, I just cannot get into that show. It's too nihilistic and joyless for me.

I saw The Intern. It was a perfectly pleasant movie with really good and sweet performance from De Niro (which makes his involvement in that horrid upcoming Efron movie even more pathetic). Do you know what is even more annoying than Anne Hathaway? This movie provides an answer to this question. Anne Hathawy playing a drunk person in one scene. Jesus, that was so cringe worthy.

I also saw Room. People whine about Alicia Vikander and Rooney Mara being in category frauds but Jesus Christ, Jacob Tremblay is getting nominated in supporting almost everywhere when he is the lead! If anyone must be supporting here it is Larson. This is just such a laughable placing. But it's probably good news for DiCaprio because my God, this kid is amazing. Larson is great but she is overhyped - she is miles behind Theron and Japy in Respire for me. But this kid? Unbelievable. I'm not sure I'll have the opportunity to review this one but it was so emotional and lovely and I cried so much when Jack met the dog. The film is flawed, Larson is overrated and the category fraud is just gross, but it's a good film.

As for Brooklyn it was a more skillfully made movie, but its story wasn't as emotional. I do find Ronan's natural and subtle performance to be really great but again, this ain't Theron or Japy. I expected to watch both Room and Brooklyn and go 'woah' and I was only mildly impressed. I mean Brooklyn was lovely, the score was beautiful, the costumes outstanding. But it was forgettable too.

I have to say most of those Oscar contenders fall flat on their ass this year. We were supposed to be rolling in potential candidates and have masterpieces and the potential candidates underwhelmed (films like Suffragette) and those 'masterpieces' (Room and Brooklyn) are not that. But Carol is next for me. Fingers crossed.

Keith and Brittani reviews Room

MettelRay shares my outrage over Globes snubbing Hardy

Josh shares his latest Oscar predictions

m.brown reviews Krampus

Alex lists 55 things he loves about Inglorious Basterds

Ruth reviews Creed

and finally it's a Christmas miracle! Andrew is back!

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If you told me months ago when I walked out of cinema after seeing Fury Road, all lightheaded and enamored, that this is gonna be the movie that's gonna be up for most prestigious Oscars, I wouldn't believe you. But somehow, it has happened. Fury Road is getting accolades and nominations left and right and the nomination for Best Picture at the Oscars seems certain.

So let's have ourselves a Merry Christmas and revisit my favorite movie of 2015. Here are the things I adored about it:

1. Tom Hardy's The Revenant audition.

2. Day 12045 - ht 10 hands - 180 pounds - No Name No lumps No Bumps Full life Clear - Two good eyes No Busted limbs - Piss OK Genitals intact - Multiple Scars Heals fast - O-NEGATIVE HI-OCTANE - UNIVERSAL DONOR - Lone Road Warrior Rundown - on the Powder Lakes V8 - No guzzoline No supplies - ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC - Keep Muzzled…

3. How horrific this shot is.

4. The fake medals on Immortan Joe's armor

5. The paralyzing fear in Furiosa's eyes as she takes the turn and sets her plan in motion

6. This little moment of humour.

7. The wives taking the time before escaping to let Joe know why they are escaping.

8. The bravery of that woman. Also -

"Just picked up “Art of Mad Max” today - happily surprised by the amount of Miss Giddy images. The image of her face tattoos was in mirror-image writing - she was tattooing herself in a mirror - and I flipped the image to try and decipher it. The main phrase I can pick out is “They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind.”
Oh my god I have been looking for this but do you also realize: She wrote in code. She wrote so that anyone looking at her wont be able to know immediately what she’s saying. Her makeup took five hours a day - tattoo artists sent them the material and the makeup artists had to individually transfer little bitty stencils all over her :O"

9. That fucking guitarist and the sound editing - the guitar sounds louder the closer the camera gets to him.

10. The first moment we see Furiosa engaging in combat with her crossbow.

11. THAT'S MY HEAD!

12. The first time we see one of the wives - looking so drastically different from everyone else we saw so far in the movie - clothed in white, with a veil on her head, appearing as some sort of ethereal being. Tom Holkenborg's score also introduces very out of this world, angelic sounding notes in this moment.

13. The first time Max and Furiosa see each other. Have in mind that Furiosa saw horrors, misery and slaves before but look into her eyes - there is curiosity here. It's like she sees an animal that has some actual intelligence and humanity in its eyes. Max is not like the others.

14. Furiosa's confused look as she notices the sand storm - oh well, didn't plan on it but we will have to deal with it.

15. When this whole sequence was happening I knew I wasn't just watching a great movie but something instantly iconic.

16. When that scene began I had no idea what I was looking at.

17. The first time Max sees the wives - it's like a mirage - the water, these creatures, all this freedom, right in front of him.

18. The simplicity of this already iconic shot.

19. Furiosa acting like she would towards wounded animal when it comes to Max - she simply throws her knife and observes his actions without making a move

20. But as Max raises his gun and begins threatening the girls Furiosa becomes increasingly angry that here it is, yet another male telling them what to do and enslaving them.

21. The way Dag moves and her boots - so different from other girls.

22. You can actually feel Furiosa's anger growing as this scene progresses. Theron is spellbinding in this role.

23. The girls being so astonishingly smart and capable in spite of living in captivity for so long - notice how long The Dag struggles with the chains giving Furiosa just enough time to attack Max and the girls immediately come to her aid.

24. The entire Furiosa vs Max fight scene is fucking insane. I think this is the scene where Theron accidentally (though given how much she didn't like working with Tom...) broke Tom's nose. This scene is just an outburst of violence between two beings struggling to survive. The pounding music here only adds to the scene's intensity.

25. This moment. The bullets piercing the sand and blowing it up. You can feel the sound. The ground is fucking shaking.

26. Splendid's astonishing bravery as she simply refuses to let the men win and passes them. When Max shoots at her and wounds her leg she doesn't even give him the satisfaction of screaming in pain.

27. Furiosa stopping Capable.

28. This great moment of The Dag kicking the chastity belt.

29. "Not without them".

30. The look in Furiosa's eyes when Max tells her he will go out and she should stay inside. He is on their team now.

31. The fact that Miller decided to let Max take off his mask only when he has a purpose other than survival to go on. He is no longer a caged animal. He is a human being again.

32. Furiosa spitting in Nux face.

33. That after all she has been through Furiosa is willing to trust Max.

34. The look on Max's face when Furiosa tells him she is gonna yell the word 'Fool'.

35. This guy and that epic pointing.

36. "Yeah, well I got unlucky". You gotta love that sass.

37. That look Furiosa and Max share as they drive out of the canyon.

38. This epic moment. The sound mixing here just makes everything sound so triumphant.

39. The qick set of shots showing us Max preparing the shotgun for Furiosa and handing it to her.

40. Hardy has done some astonishingly badass stuff in his career but I have never gasped more than I did when we saw Max taking the enemy out with a hand gun. Oh my God.

41. The most badass hero shot in any movie this year (except for Force Awakens).

42. Splendid's WTF expression as Toast the Knowing is handling the guns.

43. Next to the belt being cut off, this is the biggest Girl Power moment in the movie.

44. I don't know how all these people survived the making of this film.

45. Joe being actually sincerely concerned about Splendid.

46. Splendid's smile...

47. ...and Max impossibly dorky gesture.

48. I don't know how Hardy does his thing. He is impossibly talented - he takes a line and just makes it a gem of acting craft. Max says "she went under the wheels" - in such a cold way, leaving no room for doubt. And yet it is such kindness he is doing here. Had they turned back they would all die.

49. The devastation in the Rig after Splendid is gone.

50. When I was watching it for the first time I didn't know what Furiosa intends to do here.The movie was constantly surprising me.

51. The sincerity and care with which Furiosa says she wants the girls to stay together.

52. What I call"hope" shots of the movie.

53. He is seriously still going. Also the lighting here!

54. Dag commenting on the gunfire. She sounds so sarcastic when she says her lines.

55. Max giving Furiosa the gun only with slight - and adorable! - annoyance.

56. This hysterical moment.

57. Nux giving Capable a kiss.

58. That is one of the most moving moments in the movie. Max intends to go back to take care of people chasing them. Furiosa asks what they should do if he won't be back for a while and he says, without a second thought "Well then you keep going". I think my eyes watching this scene matched Furiosa's expression. Max is willing to sacrifice himself because he has decided, he already knows, these girls and Furiosa need to succeed. He still thinks he doesn't matter at all, but they? They are remarkable.

59. The tension of Furiosa aiming her gun at the person who approaches and the relief when it turns out it's victorious Max.

Part 2 coming next week.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Let us first dive into a shitstorm. So you probably heard of the whiny, unprofessional "journalist"'s reprehensible tweets and Tom's open letter to him. I was going to rant about that but instead I'm just gonna express how sad I am that this bothered Tom's peace. Clearly it did - he wrote the letter. It's Christmas. And instead of having that time uninterrupted, he had to deal with that manchild.

Look at him:

Yeah sure seems like an asshole during interviews (and this one is a particularly fantastic one).

Oh and him and DiCaprio when they pair up? Such horrible people:

They really do seem like miserable people who don't have fun doing interviews, do they?:

I'm sure that chat ended with DiCaprio giving the journalist titty twister and Hardy stealing his lunch money.

So...movies!

I finally saw Legend.

Fearing for my life while doing so.

Because seriously:

What the hell, Tom.

And before we start, can I just point out that there is this thing online yet I don't remember Tom being shirtless at all in this movie? Granted, I was drinking while watching it. But....I don't think I could get drunk enough not to notice Tom without a shirt...could I?

No, no. He was definitely clothed the entire time.

...though.... was he?

Legend was good but I hate it when the movie is so much worse than the main attraction - Hardy's roles. He was magnificent. I know his way of talking, gesturing, acting in real life and he disappeared in both Krays - I saw no trace of Tom there. It was almost startling, I mean I usually see something from him in his performances - like in Peaky Blinders there is this imposing quality he has, like he could just cloud entire world for you in spite of his short height, but he looked much less strong and threatening in Legend. So because I saw no Tom in that it was actually pretty easy to despise his characters.

That also posed an issue because they wanted me to feel for his wife but Emily Browning was so fucking dull here I wouldn't give a shit if Reggie hacked her into little pieces. How easy is it to play a woman who is in love with character played by Hardy?! And yet she failed to portray that.

The whole thing with him playing both roles is impressive - there is a scene where they both fight and it's really incredible how he pulled all of that off. Overall it's definitely worth seeing just for his performances. He is currently my win in Lead Actor but I have yet to see The Revenant. Which by the way has been leaked online but there is no way in hell I am gonna watch it on small screen.

I can wait 40 days *claws walls*.

Steve Jobs was great. Better than Brooklyn, better than Carol. I think it's because people weren't yelling what a fucking brilliant movie it was so when it turned out it was great I was pleasantly surprised. Fassbender was terrific and Winslet was lovely Rogen was also very good as was Daniels. I really enjoyed the energy of this film it was frantic and tense and it made for a great viewing experience.

Carol fell flat on its ass. I don't give it a single nomination. I just don't dig Haynes' movies. Which makes it all the more amazing I loved his version of Mildred Pierce (which was a mini series). His movies are all style, no substance. You never get a sense that these two women are in love. What exactly did Rooney Mara win for in Cannes? Walk around with the same look on her face? You cannot sell me a cold movie about love. Love is not cold. This approach never worked for me and never will. No one involved with this film has any business being near nominations and the cinematography winning would be laughable.

I tried watching Joy. Managed to see 40 minutes. It's unwatchable. It's not because of Lawrence, who tries, but the film is just beyond awful.

Hateful Eight already made its way online. FBI is apparently trying to figure out who leaked it. Can you imagine Tarantino on a phone with these guys? Also are we sure this isn't someone from Disney being responsible for this particular movie leaking? He did bitch about Disney and we all remember this, don't we? ------->

I thought starting with the coffee scene the film was entertaining but the preceding 100 minutes were mediocre. Samuel L. Jackson plays such a vile character and the story he tells is the grossest thing in all Tarantino films. I was also uncomfortable with the level of violence directed at Jennifer Jason Leigh which was not only extreme but also was played for laughs which was disturbing. It's not a bad movie, but it's one of Tarantino's weakest.

Star Wars. I saw A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back along with half of Return of the Jedi last weekend, so I still need to finish but I really liked it. Luke is kinda boring and Yoda was creeping the shit out of me but the films were really a lot of fun. However, Leia annoyed me to no end. I mean...Harrison Ford rescues you and you are acting like a total bitch to him. 1 1/2 of a movie it took for her to let him kiss her. My God.

The Force Awakens was impossibly dope. What a fun, entertaining movie. Daisy Ridley - there are no words, probably, but I'll try. She is so natural, enthusiastic and adorable. And her character was so admirable and easy to root for. And we care for her from the very first moments because she fixes BB-8's (I SO WANT BB-8 of my own!) antenna and is so kind to it.

I'll probably review the film in few days but man, it was awesome. I already made the cover for the review, super proud of this one:

I had tears in my eyes when that lightsaber lit up after flying to Rey. Jesus Christ.

The only thing it was lacking was eye candy department. I mean I'm still shell shocked from seeing Adam Driver bang Lena Dunham on Girls. So when I see his face, I have fucking flashbacks to that. You need to balance it out with something.

My mom was satisfied just with Ford there (she basically dragged me to the cinema and her reason for seeing the movie - her only reason - was that she is seriously horny for Ford and remarked about 15 times how good he looks when she saw a footage from the premiere on the news) but I'm like, you have Oscar Isaac there and you are underusing him.

Seriously:

If they are hellbent on having interracial couple, OK let me try and pretend that a woman would prefer a goofy Finn to this. But at least have Poe shirtless for the freaking audience.

And the new episode of The Big Bang Theory:

....was outstanding. Not only did it feature the gang loving TFA but also Sheldon and Amy had sex!

That's right. Even Sheldon Cooper is getting laid.

So apparently Dumb and Dumber are gonna make some changes to Game of Thrones after rape controversy. How about you do something about No Lady Stoneheart controversy, huh?

m.brown, Brittani and ruth review The Force Awakens and Courtney lists 5 reasons why The Force is back

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Keith reviews The Connection

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(spoilers!)

I was 10 years old when Phanthom Menace came out. I remember how the toys inspired by the movie were everywhere and everyone was talking about this film. I had not seen this one in the cinema but I did see Attack of the Clones. By the time Revenge of the Sith came out the new trilogy was already such a subject of ridicule I watched it solely for the laughs.

I wish I was born 15 years later or 20 years sooner. It must be so dope to be a kid and grow up with actual good Star Wars films. But what George Lucas tarnished for my generation, the new one is getting thanks to Disney and JJ Abrams. I'm not gonna sit here and lie - this film has one of the least ballsy scripts of the year. It follows the formula of A New Hope, it relies so heavily on nostalgia and it plays everything very safe. But I think this is a small sin comparing to the alternative - Lucas' prequels were no doubt creative. Creative to the point we wanted to rip out our eyeballs and shove them into our ears as plugs, just so we don't have to experience that creativity anymore.

The blessing here is that people can just forget the prequels and focus on the sequels instead. After 32 years we return to the original timeline and we see what happens after the events of Return of the Jedi. We meet a young scavenger Rey (luminous Daisy Ridley), a Storm Trooper gone rogue Finn (John Boyega) and a pilot Poe (Oscar Isaac). When the evil First Order tracks down Poe, he sends crucial info for the Resistance in adorable droid - BB-8. Very soon Rey discovers BB-8, helps him out and soon she meets Finn too. Rey, Finn and BB-8 embark on a journey to return BB-8 to Resistance, all the while escaping from The First Order.

The Force Awakens is incredibly fun. It is not boring for a second, it is easy to follow and it has very likable characters. Abrams is smart to include traits of character that are universally endearing in his main heroes and showing them early on to make sure the audience cares about these people. Poe is brave, Finn does the right thing and Rey is extraordinarily kind. And then we have BB-8. Sorry R2D2, this is the real Miss Universe of droids. When he gave thumbs up the entire audience cheered.

The best thing about the film is its main character - Rey - and Daisy Ridley's lovely performance. Rey is someone we like from the very first moments, someone who is good, noble and brave. She has such innocence to her and the moments when she fangirls over Millennium Falcon and Han Solo were so adorable. I think even Harrison Ford's legendary grumpiness died a little in the face of such childlike, sweet enthusiasm.

This is Ridley's first movie. I have no idea where the casting people found her. Maybe it was Heaven where she hang out with other angels, while riding on unicorns or something? She is so cute and natural in her role here. She has that bite and charm Keira Knightley had in Pirates of the Caribbean, she looks a bit like Keira too, but she has more innocence to her and infinitely better written character.

What is truly impressive is that Ridley sells every single emotion she shows in this movie. Fear, hope, courage - it all rings true. She acts with her face so beautifully - the movie's ending is just fantastic and the magnitude of the events that are happening cannot be denied, but it is in Rey's eyes that you really see the importance of it all. I almost shook myself seeing her raise her hand with saber in it and tremble with tears in her eyes.

John Boyega's Finn and Oscar Isaac's Poe provide the solid support and create a likable trio along with Rey, but Isaac is very underused here. It's actually not so much a trio, like in the old trilogy, but Finn and Rey duo. It is incredibly strange Rey and Poe don't even have a scene together. Hopefully it changes in the next movie. The movie's antagonist is played by Adam Driver, who, given who his character is, is very miscast. Driver is a good actor and he does well here but considering the character's parentage it all seemed quite silly.

Kylo Ren is a good villain. And the film promises some ambiguity here - we know the light is calling to Ren. We also saw the pure anger with which Rey was fighting. I've seen so many theories about how these two will switch sides in next movie. While it would rob Rey of her innocence and I don't think anyone wants to see that, it's good that there is at least some ambiguity to the story here.

The iconic characters from the old trilogy come back, most prominently Harrison Ford as Han Solo. It's apparently not a secret that Ford wanted out of a franchise for a while now, but me not being very familiar with it, I was surprised at the turn of events. I actually only saw the original trilogy for the first time few days before seeing The Force Awakens so I cannot imagine what impact Solo's last scene must have had on die-hard fans. That scene was absolutely heart wrenching, in big part thanks to Chewbacca witnessing it and Rey's agonizing, helpless screams. JJ Abrams doesn't fuck about, does he?

I've seen people bitch about how Leia has no reaction to what happens. I'm not sure if they got out to pee in this very moment or they passed out from seeing one of the most iconic characters in the world of cinema ruthlessly slaughtered, but there is quite a long shot of Leia looking devastated right after Han dies. Do people associate grief and heartbreak solely with yelling and welling? Leia's way of showing grief was perfectly in line with her character whom I actually found to be quite cold while watching the trilogy. So really, that complaint is a strange one.

There are so many actors here who are unrecognizable, masked or even in cameo capacity - Daniel Craig shows up as dickish Storm Trooper and I bet he had more fun doing this than the last 007 movie, Lupita Nyong'o plays a tiny Maz Kanata - who is an awesome character but really you are just so freaked out Academy Award Winner is reduced with CGI to this tiny creature instead of you know, giving her something that she would be recognizable in. And Gwendoline Christie, having survived the atrocious writing of Game of Thrones season 6,shows up as Captain Phasma but she is wearing a helmet the whole time.

Domhnall Gleeson, who was in about 100 movies in 2015, shows up as the general for the Order and basically goes full retard here. I've just seen him deliver beautiful, subtle performance in Brooklyn, but whatever he was trying to do here, he failed in miserably. But I'll say one more thing about acting - in his 30 seconds of screen time I found Mark Hamill to be better than in the previous three films. Combined.

I'm super psyched for the next movie. We have all those characters that were so well established in the movie and I'm interested to see what happens next. But there is one big reason why I believe Episode VIII will be even better than The Force Awakens - it's gonna be directed by Rian Johnson, who has made one of the finest sci-fi movies of the last decade in Looper and directed, in popular opinion, the best Breaking Bad episode in Ozymandias.

I think things will get very dark with Johnson at helm, but that's good. The Force Awakens successfully delivered great entertainment while still containing one of the saddest moment in cinema this year. And in Rey, Finn and Poe we have new characters to root for and have adventures with.

We will meet again soon, my friends.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens
(2015, 135 min)
Plot: Three decades after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, a new threat arises. The First Order attempts to rule the galaxy and only a rag-tag group of heroes can stop them, along with the help of the Resistance.
Director: J.J. Abrams
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt (written by), George Lucas (based on characters created by)
Stars: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac

RELATED POSTS:

(spoilers!)

The Hateful Eight, Tarantino's eight movie, is a fine film. While it is too long and it's last 60 minutes are significantly better than the first 100, it's still a fine film. It will keep you entertained, it has moments of sheer brilliance (Daisy playing on the guitar comes to mind) and good performances by talented actors, with Leigh stealing the show and Channing Tatum yet again delivering very strong work in spite of short screentime. In spite of a very long running time - nearly 3 hours - the film is never boring. In fact parts of it are really masterful.

Here's the thing, though - for me Tarantino peaked with Jackie Brown. Pulp Fiction may be my favorite of his, but Jackie Brown is by far the most mature movie and script. After Jackie Brown Tarantino descended into a pit of making a movies he would probably love to watch himself, movies filled with him fanboying over lots of stuff and paying homages as often as he can. So we got two parts of Kill Bill, Death Proof, Tarantino rewriting history in Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. All, except for Death Proof, good and fun movies. But neither of them on the level of Jackie Brown or what came before it.

Tarantino's films post-Jackie feel different. They don't even feel like movies but a spectacle of Tarantino having fun for 2-3 hours. They are filled with caricatures, gimmicks and lack emotional impact Tarantino's previous films had. They feel less real, the characters being larger than life and the stories resembling something you can find in comic books. I'm not saying these films aren't awesome - I adore Inglourious Basterds and Kill Bill films and at the very least Django brought with it terrific work from Waltz. But I miss 90's Tarantino.

There is a terrific little movie from 2015 which I praised extensively everywhere that I could - Bone Tomahawk -Tarantino also praised the film, including him on his top 10 of 2015 list. When I was watching this movie the first 3/4 of it reminded me so much of what Tarantino's lines used to be - they were always clever and funny but there was also something human about the way his characters talked. His characters felt real. In the last few years his characters feel like simply characters in movies., not people who could actually exist.

The Hateful Eight is another step farther from 90's Tarantino - this time Tarantino fancied to tell a little bit of Agatha Christie meets western story and so he did. The mystery is here, the tension is here, witty lines are also here. But it's yet again Tarantino staging a movie out of homages and larger than life situations and characters.

There is something, however, that distinguishes The Hateful Eight from Tarantino's other seven films: for me, this time, he went too far.

Here is my main problem with The Hateful Eight - the level of violence and humiliation directed at Jennifer Jason Leigh's character is ridiculous. It is also played for laughs. I get that Tarantino paints all those characters as pretty much equally vile people. I get that Daisy is supposed to be a murderer and she took people's lives. One of the many mistakes Tarantino does here, though, is not telling us exactly what Daisy did. Not painting her as a vile creature he just assumes we see when we look at her instead of having us learn all the gruesome details is a mistake.

Who is the primary audience for Tarantino's movies? Males. Especially young males. Now I highly doubt that adolescent boys who love Tarantino for all the swear words and violence will ponder about the fact that Tarantino is making Daisy equal to the males so the violence in the director's mind is justified. They are gonna see petite Leigh getting repeatedly hit in the face and think to themselves that this is "fucking awesome" and that "the bitch got what she deserved".

Tarantino is one of the most well known, influential directors on the planet. I cannot remember the last time a director of such influence had scenes of a woman being mercilessly beaten up for a comic relief. And the men are painted to be hero protagonists! Or at least better than Daisy, the bitch who is supposed to hang. We are told that there is a plan to help her escape so she is made out to be the main villain in the movie. But who can blame a woman for trying to escape her captor? Yet again, Tarantino not showing us or at least telling us what Daisy did while he goes into such detail when it comes to deeds committed by the men in the movie was such a failure on his part.

People say about this movie that there was really no issue with gender because the characters are equal. But they aren't equal. And you cannot just erase gender. Especially when all the other female characters are also brutally treated. This isn't Kill Bill where we had at least one good female character kicking ass or Death Proof with all those fighting ladies. This is the movie where all of the female characters die by the hand of a male. Normally this would not be an issue in itself. But add to that the brutalization of a female character happening for comic relief? Oh, it's a big issue then.

That Tarantino's agenda was not misogynistic doesn't prevent the movie from having an effect on misogynistic society. In fact it has nothing to do with director's intent- the film's images of extreme violence directed at female character speak louder than whatever agenda or vision Tarantino had. I'm sure Tarantino and Leigh thought that in that final scene a cackling witch is being hanged. But if Tarantino thought that the script he wrote, the lines we hear and the events we see were enough to justify beating up a woman and showing her brutal hanging and for us to cheer about the triumph of the last two males standing, he has miscalculated greatly.

I do think that blaming Tarantino for gun violence in real world, which happens pretty much every single time a young person shoots people, is a stretch. But he is acting irresponsibly to have scenes of such violence directed at a woman in a movie that is gonna get released in this misogynistic world. Leigh gets repeatedly physically abused, she gets blood spat on her, brains of her brother splattered on her face and in the end she is hang as males, one of them more likely than not, a rapist, laugh and come off as heroes of this story. I truly feel that this time Quentin Tarantino crossed the line. By a very significant margin.

In no way am I calling Tarantino misogynistic. Neither does Sasha Stone, exactly, who wrote a brilliant piece on this issue. Jennifer Jason Leigh herself said that he isn't and in her mind her character is tough - this is not something I am denying either. I am however calling Tarantino extremely irresponsible. As a woman who gets frightened every single time she passes a large group of males on the street after dark, the issue of Tarantino unleashing scenes of a chained woman beaten up by male protagonists painted out to be heroes is, for me, far more pressing and important than his insistence of using the N word so prominently in this day and age.This isn't Irreversible where even Gaspar Noe showed the rapist to be despicable or any other movie where a woman is abused because there, in those other films, the abusers aren't shown to be heroes. Which brings me to another point -

My other issue is the story Samuel L. Jackson's character is telling at one point of the movie. It's the most disgusting thing in Tarantino's movie yet. I had no issue with rape in Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill because the people who committed it were villains and got punished. But I take issue with it here - because clearly Jackson's character is supposed to be one of the heroes of the story. Yes, you will tell me that 'come on no one is supposed to be a hero'. But Jackson's character is shown to be smart, cunning, resourceful, someone who honors the wishes of the dead man who saved his life. If Tarantino is taking sides, it's clear he is on his.

It's possible the character was lying, since he lied about the letter, but this is never clarified for the audience. When you have a character that is supposed to be a hero talk about raping someone and then you don't clarify that he lied, you risk alienating the audience. And Tarantino certainly alienated me. If Tarantino has a character talk of a crime this vile he should have clarify it afterwards - either it was truth or it was a lie. Since he didn't, I found the character revolting, which in effect turned the ending into something revolting - a rapist, whose crime we saw, is laughing as a female, whose crime we didn't see, is hang. There is just something so wrong about that ending.

I see that majority of people assumed the character was lying but here's the thing - he later gets shot in the groin. And given Tarantino's fondness for irony I figured that actually makes his story more real - the rapist got shot in the balls as punishment for his crime. At the very least that script needed more work. I feel it is ambiguous in the parts it shouldn't be ambiguous in at all. While there is a lot of good in the script - the flashback chapter is a little masterpiece that took me right to 90's Tarantino and Channing Tatum's work there was exceptional - he sabotages his own work by not being literal where a shade of doubt is enough to cloud the entire film.

I should have had reasons to hate Daisy. I should have been told if Samuel L. Jackson's character is a rapist or not. Why not swap the roles here - have a flashback of Daisy doing something revolting, not someone who is supposed to be a person the audience roots for. Clear both of those issues and it's a fantastic script. There is a difference between ambiguity that adds to the character and ambiguity that makes it impossible to feel for a character in a way the filmmaker intended or at least the way that makes the movie work. Did Tarantino really think witty lines said by sassy character are gonna be enough to make rape funny? Did he really think eliciting an inappropriate laughter from audience is more important than making things clear? Was that story really worth risking to derail the entire film? Was he even aware that this could happen or was he chuckling manically and patting himself on the back for coming up with it? With both of those issues it ruins the entire film while making Tarantino look incompetent and his script appear very, very flawed.

I feel Tarantino lost touch with the real world. Both when it comes to how fake his films from the last 15 years feel and both for what effect his movies may have on the impressionable young audience. As an artist he should have freedom. But as an influential filmmaker he also has responsibility. When I saw the movie I didn't feel outraged or horrified because of what I was seeing on the screen. But I felt outraged and horrified at the glee with which Tarantino was showing every single punch Daisy takes, the close ups of her bloodied face and broken teeth. If you choose to show something like that, you cannot do that without a message. You cannot do that if you don't condemn it. And Tarantino was too busy having his silly, cinematic fun to notice that.

Now don't get me wrong. While watching the movie I enjoyed most of it. But for the first time in 2015 I was absolutely puzzled with what the hell was the director trying to achieve here. And the more I think about it the more I think he didn't actually want to achieve anything. He just wanted to have a character tell a 'funny' story and just wanted a female-villain character hang in the end with two men left waiting to die in some sort of a homage to The Thing. That's it. But when you are a filmmaker, when you show people a bloodied woman getting brutalized, you better have more reason to do so than just because you want to.

I spent much of this week watching Indiana Jones and wishing I had a time machine that would take me back to 80's.

Because goddamn:

Did women faint during the 80's in cinemas a lot?

Having just posted about brutality directed at woman in the previous post, I saw Temple of Doom two days ago and I was turned on to be sure but mostly stunned. In the beginning Indiana Jones is poisoned and acting erratic and there is this huge fight and then all of the sudden there is a 2 second long moment of him sucker punching some random woman and I was like what is happening?! Then at the end he actually captures a woman with his whip and I have felt so many things in this moment mostly this is so wrong but I am not feeling outrage and it makes me feel like a hypocrite but she seems really into it oh God what am I and what is this

And also - I wasn't around for most of the 80s but Indiana Jones movies were mostly for kids, right? PG and all? There is a scene where Indiana tells this chick he wants to conduct nocturnal experiment on her and study her sexual activities (I was just so exhausted by the time the movie was over, seriously there was even whipping of shirtless Ford in that thing) and they sure don't make movies like that any more, there is barely any innuendos left in films these days, it's just all so 'god let's hope we don't offend anybody and god forbid we ever allude to sex'. How is it that people had more courage in 80's than they do nowadays?!

This is all my mother's fault. Not only did she fangirl excessively over Ford before, during and after Force Awakens but Sabrina was on TV this week. This movie is holy in our household. Whenever it airs we just watch it and sigh loudly. I don't think people are aware that this movie exists. Let me convince you to watch it.

Also this was pointed out to me -------->

Meanwhile when I was not daydream-cheating on Tom, I used my magic powers to get him a new gig. Hear me out - few days ago it was announced that Chris Nolan~~is finally too annoyed with Academy ignoring him so he~~ decided to make a movie about ~~one of their favorite subjects -~~ World War 2, Dunkirk to be more precise (remember that incredible scene in Atonement?), which is also the movie's working title.

So I was like "dude, Chris, get Hardy. He looks so good in a uniform (albeit still not good enough to make sit through Child 44 in entirety) and you obviously are capable of working with him more than once". And then BAM! Hardy is in talks to be in the movie(along with Kenneth Brannagh and front runner for this year's Best Supporting Actor Mark Rylance). I'm so freaking happy.

28 days until I see The Revenant and can publish my end of the year list. It's almost entirely ready. I'm introducing new categories - most influential hair-style thanks to Bryce Dallas Howard's hair in Jurassic World for which I had my long curls cut down and JJ Abrams award for the most cruel moment in the movie. Seriously, I cannot get over how awful that was. I'm also backed into a corner with my most misogynistic Lars Von Trier award because Tarantino is not misogynistic yet if you read my yesterday's post and see the two delightful comments under it, Hateful Eight certainly makes misogynistic crowd cheer.

Here's more of Tom being awesome during The Revenant interviews. I love that it took DiCaprio a moment to react:

Downton Abbey series finale was absolutely lovely. Everything ended well and Edith found happiness. More series finales should be like this one.

Spotlight was great. It was not as great as everyone kept saying it was but it's a solid 9/10. It would be good if it won Best Picture - we need people talking about what a disgusting and criminal organization the Catholic Church institution is. The film shows things from the journalistic perspective but the monstrosity of Catholic Church is so evident in the actions of their representatives. The movie also has the most shocking ending I've seen in a while, that happens after the final scene, in the things we read on the black screen. I am gonna review it. I never pass on a chance to point out most of the members of that institution should be chained and locked up.

The Danish Girl was terrible. Eddie Redmayne's style of acting is this - looks down, looks up, smiles like a psychopath, whispers. If the Academy nominates him for this ridiculous performance it's gonna be an embarrassment on par with him actually winning last year. Also, why are you punishing me, God? The only male nudity I saw in 2015 film is now from Eddie freaking Redmayne. What the shit, man. I don't deserve this. I'm a good person. Why would you show me his penis? Why would you show anyone his penis? Why?

I needed to look at shirtless photos of Hardy for about 10 minutes after witnessing this crap. I have absolutely no issue with transgender people. But I have an issue with naked Redmayne. This was just plain disturbing.

That film was also so badly written. I was probably supposed to feel for Redmayne's character but he was such an asshole. He was a freeloader who sat in his house, whining, put his wife through hell and was just a selfish jerk. Not that the wife was any better. There is a scene where she is undressing him and she sees he is wearing a nightie under his clothes. And instead of going, I don't know, "WHAT THE FUCK BABY?" she says nothing and bangs him. Then the next day she suggests he goes to the ball with her and he dresses up like a girl. I was stunned by the events depicted in this film. This must have been creative license because this much stupid actually existing in real life would tear the time-space continuum.

2015: The year I feared for Matthias Schoenaerts. First because of that moronic Batsheba, then the freakshow couple in The Danish Girl. He shows up as this good guy who was friends with Redmayne's character and then I was forced to sit there watching Vikander stand by her husband and keep throwing Schoenaerts away.

I honestly kept hoping a bomb would drop and that movie would just end leaving Schoenaerts and the dog as sole survivors.

Irrational Man was one of those forgettable films from Allen he does almost every year now. There was nothing new in the story, At least the soundtrack was fun. Seriously this is all I have to say about this film.

Spectre was ridiculous. I knew Waltz would suck in this as soon as I saw the trailer.. And what do you know, I was right. He puts zero effort in his performances lately. He was such a bland, ludicrously written villain. Seydoux was also fucking terrible. She played her character as some ditsy rebellious schoolgirl. The chain of events of her banging Bond in the train and then the next day telling him 'I love you James' as he was getting tortured almost made me laugh my ass off. And Monica Bellucci? She was in that for 4 minutes! Why did they get actress of this caliber and looks to be in a movie for 4 minutes?! They should have scrapped that awful Seydoux's character and just have Bellucci as a single Bond girl this time around, age appropriate. Watching Craig and Seydoux together made me cringe and I'm usually all for older man/younger woman (CLEARLY) but she was acting like a schoolgirl and that was disgusting as fuck - it wasn't an act to turn on Bond, no she was actually this silly. Also what was up with the slapstick way the henchmen died? Or Bond shooting down a helicopter....with a handgun...while being on motorboat? I can't even.

Suffragette was a wasted opportunity. The script and the direction in this movie reeked of amateurism. It's such a shame because this could have been a powerful, important movie. Movies about women who fought for our freedom have to keep getting made. The story shown in the movie is barely one century old. Hundred years ago, just a hundred, a course of a lifetime, women were still being treated like inferior and denied basic rights. It's a shame a better movie wasn't made here and the awful direction deprives Carey Mulligan of any chance to create a great performance.

The Big Short went completely over my head. I was always dumb when it came to economics so not even Margot Robbie showing up for one minute and explaining it in bath tub helped. That was possibly the most brilliant thing to happen in 2015 movie:

Anyways two things I'm certain of - Gosling is excellent in it and steals the show and Bale's award recognition for that film is simply puzzling.

So Marvel vomited some stuff on us this week. Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr Strange. He does look very much like the character and the casting of Mads Mikkelsen and Tilda Swinton will be enough to get me to watch that.

We also got first look at Assassin's Creed. Well hopefully it will have a better script than Macbeth. Also we got first image from the sequel to Neighbors. The first one was one of my favorite comedies last year so I'm very much looking forward to it.

We have the first still from The Girl on the Train. Emily Blunt still look too good for someone who plays overweight alcoholic. My entire faith lies in Ferguson.

We got first image from La La Land with Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. I'm not into musicals at all but these two may work up enough magic along with Whiplash director who made the movie to make it interesting.

As I'm gasping for breath and drinking lots of water while rewatching Indiana Jones fun coincidence sees Mark reviewing those awesome films
Brittani didn't hate The Danish Girl so that's shocking in itself
m.brown reviews Concussion for which I assume Smith will steal Hardy's nomination for Legend. He also reviews Age of Adaline which I'll see very soon for reasons.
Keith shares his top 10 movies of 2015
Mette writes about the ridiculous treatment of women in Spectre
Courtney points out the many flaws of Joy

RELATED POSTS:

(part 1 here)

60. Hardy selling the shit out of this moment and that quick montage of truly horrific images showing us just how hellish Max's dreams are

61. That thing Hardy does with his eyes. He does it in a lot of his roles, actually.

62. Theron so beautifully showing the hopefulness Furiosa feels in this moment.

63. I cannot remember the last time the idea of sisterhood got such a cinematic love letter. Furiosa is raised by women. Trained by women. Shaped by women. She is not like all those action heroines trained to fight by their dads.

64. Furiosa smiling as she remembers her tribe's customs.Theron infuses her with such childlike innocence here, it just breaks my heart

65. The frantic, sad violins mixed with the distant voices of women as Furiosa realizes that all hope is lost.

66. Miller and the cinematographer don't do what everyone else would - close up. It works so well giving us such an iconic image

67. The interactions between The Dag and one of the old women.

68. Hardy acting like this was The Office and looking straight at the camera.

69. They both go Kaboom

70. The camera slightly spinning around Max and Furiosa in this beautiful moment

71. Blink and you miss it, but right before the scene cuts, Max gives Furiosa the slightest smile.

72. Dag praying to whoever will listen.

73. Spitting gasoline.

74. The quietness with which this woman is dying and Dag rushing to her side.

75. That shot. I do not know how the hell they even did that.

76. Furiosa's desperation as Toast is taken...

77. ...and Immortan counting the wives.

78. The way Max looks at Furiosa here. It's like for the first time he realizes they may die and really takes in what it would mean.

79. Furiosa's blind fury as she sees Toast in the car.

80. The shot of Furiosa's hand trembling with pain.

81. Nux's genuine concern as he notices that Furiosa is wounded.

82. I can't even find the words to describe how I feel.

83. Another impossible shot.

84. Max keeping his eyes locked at Furiosa and fighting whomever he has to get to her because he knows she will fight until she is dead. This movie is absolutely a love story. But it's not boy meets girl story. It's soul meets soul story. As the final fight progresses Max only goal is to get to her, before she loses her life trying to get to Joe.

85. That guitarist just keeps on going.

86. The subtle slow-mo of Cheedo standing there with her hand outstretched.

87. Max getting to Furiosa just in time and pulling her in.

88. Toast spitting on Immortan's corpse

89. The film has such subtle moments of grace and kindness - among them Dag taking the woman's plants and saying goodbye to her just with her gesture and Capable witnessing Nux's death and slowly reaching her hand to him.

90. "Hi, hi", "I'm so sorry" - my heart breaks at the gentle way Max speaks to Furiosa.

91. If there was any justice Charlize Theron would win every single possible award for her performance here. There has been no moment more beautiful or more flawlessly acted in any movie in 2015 than Furiosa begging Max to take them home. Home, something she lost and is so desperate to find again.

92. The tenderness with which Max touches Furiosa. He treats her as if she was some sort of miracle.

93. The things Hardy does here...that nod he makes. It's like Max reassures himself that yes, he is a person and yes, his name is Max. Something he hasn't told a person in such a long time. But Furiosa is someone he wants to tell those things.

94. Max helping up Furiosa, the crowd chanting to let them up and Tom Holkenborg's gorgeous accompanying track.

95. That shot. The triumph among the ruins.

96. That beautiful image of Furiosa - also a call back to the way Max looked in Road Warrior.

97. I have wept tears at those nods. Miller originally wanted Max to stay with them in the Citadel but Hardy told him Max is not ready to stay just yet. So we got this ending - the finest I've seen in a long time, with Max and Furiosa understanding and respecting each other so completely.

98. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie end with a quote and this one was perfect.

In early 2002, the Boston Globe covered the criminal prosecutions of five Roman Catholic priests in an article that won an uncontested Pulitzer Prize. The issue of child rape and sexual assault of Roman Catholic children became a national scandal The coverage of these cases encouraged others to come forward with allegations of abuse, resulting in more lawsuits and criminal cases. Spotlight tells the story of reporters who researched and wrote the article.

I live in a country that is mostly Catholic. We have crosses hanging in school classrooms. Children get two-hour mandatory classes of religion (just Catholic religion) a week in public schools. We have priests agitating for specific political parties in churches. And we also have had situations were kids were abused by priests. I have long maintained that Catholic Church as an institution is criminal. That institution, over the course of centuries killed thousands if not millions of people. And they have ruined lives of so many others.

What does surprise me is that to this day they have followers. Knowing what we know about them, how can anyone still go to Church? How can anyone still think that God has anything to do with this place? God has checked out of there a long, long time ago. These people would have women who were raped have no choice but to give birth. They would argue and take action into bringing kids on this Earth even though the child is ill, deformed and will die soon. Even though it is not their business, even though to every person with the slightest bit of conscience it is inhuman. Look at their treatment of women. Look at their treatment of other cultures. And they dare to judge everyone, acting as if they have the moral high ground. And for years now we heard of stories about priests abusing children.

It's repulsive. It makes me wanna vomit.

These are just my general thoughts on the matter. What I consider a failure in Spotlight is that it will not cause thoughts like these in a person who didn't have them before. It does not have the power to anger or to shock to the extent it should anger and shock. These men are abusing and raping children. Children. After seeing a movie about it you should be grabbing torches and hedge cutters.

Brokeback Mountain angered me. North Country angered me. Spotlight has merely saddened me and made me shake my head. There is nothing wrong with the subtle and journalistic approach the movie is taking, but I cannot remember any other movie being made about this subject. So since Spotlight is the first movie made about this (I know there were documentaries, Doubt years ago, I know that subplot in Calvary, but this is the first movie about this getting so much attention), don't they have the responsibility to make people feel the heinousness of the crimes of the Institution that still commits those crimes? That has influence over people and governments? They sure as hell do.

I am not saying that this diminishes the film. But I wish hit harder. Because things need to be out there that hit hard, that make people see. That hit them right between the eyes and make them see. It's insane that in this day and age, after everything that has happened it's not beyond the realm of possibility that in my country - under the current government - there will be attendance lists in Catholic churches. To be perfectly honest I think the only reason this movie has a release date here is because the current government is too busy, at least at the moment, to bother with whatever movies are in cinemas

There is one fantastic, passionate scene where Mark Ruffalo's character blows up in fury at everyone not doing anything about children getting hurt. It's the film's finest moment and perhaps because it's a sole moment of anger erupting so fiercely it hits so hard. The problem is that your heart should be trembling at the sight of this horror not just in this scene, but throughout the entire movie. The people in real world are acting like they are anesthetized. Children are getting raped and people still go to Church. The priests responsible are moved and essentially promoted and people are doing nothing about it. Subtle approach is truly not a way to go, not even when it comes to the movies. Just as newspapers, movies about subject like this have responsibility.

For what it is, which is the tale of the reporters who uncover the scandal of nearly 90 priests abusing children just in Boston area Spotlight is very skillfully done. It has a terrific pace, best ensemble work of 2015 and brilliant script that keeps you glued to the screen. And I suppose even the movie where those crimes are a secondary plot is better than a movie from which people won't find out about something horrific happening in the world right now.

While the collective efforts of actors are terrific, no one really stands out except maybe Michael Keaton who delivers a beautifully subtle work. Every single actor in this movie does great work, if slightly subdued one other than Ruffalo and uncredited Richard Jenkins, who isn't even on screen yet still manages to steal the show. He plays the voice of ex-priest and psychiatrist Richard Sipe who provided the spotlight team with crucial statistics. The scene were he informs the team that according to his findings 90 priests in Boston abuse children is incredibly well done.

What Sipe says how the Church is of men and he doesn't go to the mass anymore because his faith is in the Eternal, is something that people should be doing. They need to stop giving the power to the corrupt. They can believe in whatever they want to believe, but truly where is the correlation between the faith in God and the Institution of Church which protects the criminals?

What the movie does well is show the tip of the iceberg - there are different circumstances to the victims' stories - in one case the abuse occurs because the priest is the first person to tell the child it's OK to be gay. In another it occurs because the family of the victim treats priest like God, so the victim is too afraid to speak up. By showing that Spotlight shows what disgusting, predatory, heartless monsters these priests are.

Another thing that the movie accomplishes well is showing the lengths to which the Church goes to cover the scandals up - clandestine settlements, keeping things off the courts. You can tell me 'not all priests molest children'. But this film and that story clearly show that there are many, many priests who knew and did nothing or even actively tried to cover things up. Hopefully people who get to see this movie will be so outraged about the hypocrisy and the indecency, the shamelessness, the heinousness of those 'cover up' practices that this alone will make a difference in how they see this institution.

In the film's shattering ending we get to see the list of places where the children were abused by priests. But given everything the movie told us, how many of these cases were kept off the books, away from the court of law...we know that in actuality there have been so many more instances of abuse, molestation, rapes.

And even one instance is one too many.

Spotlight, 94/100
(128 min, 2015)
Plot: The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
Director: Tom McCarthy
Writers: Josh Singer, Tom McCarthy
Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams

So Tom's favorite SW character is Han Solo. Me and Tommy? We're one and the same.

Look at this. Look how cute:

21 Days till The Revenant:

God, this is just striking.

Jane Fonda proved herself useful this Oscar season. I think it would be a travesty if she got Academy Award nomination for her glorified cameo in Youth but this week she said this about Tom - “I just submitted my nominating ballot. A film that surprised me is Legend. I saw The Revenant and asked who played the bad guy. It was Tom Hardy and then a lot of folks said, ‘You gotta see him in Legend'. He played twin brothers. He is really amazing in this film. I came to think of the two brothers as different people even though Hardy was playing both of them. And, as the more together of the brothers, Hardy is like a new Brando.”

So this week I saw a whole bunch of Harrison Ford's movies but I also saw this gem:

It's even funnier if you are familiar with Conan's bits with Jordan, but I swear to God when Ford asked "Is here OK?" I almost suffocated I was laughing so hard. I've seen this clip at least 10 times by now.

Love the pictures, the description and that insane number of notes. Tell me someone is building that fucking time machine. It's 2016! We should be able to do that!

I saw Working Girl. So in the end of that one Melanie Griffith got a new job, her own office, her own secretary and Harrison Ford.

I...I got a new lamp for my desk last week.

I actually haven't been at work this year at all because I came down with some virus from hell so I'm pretty sure someone already stole the lamp.

Also my God. The hair and make up in this movie? What was that? I mean....what the hell was that?

Not a great week for marriage in movies I saw:

I rewatched What Lies Beneath(and made an inappropriate gifset of it) which is one of the best thrillers of the last years. Normally I'm like, dude, kill the cheating bastard. But here I was like - he is rich, he is a doctor, he's Harrison fucking Ford. but nooooo. Michelle Pfeiffer just had to care about some dead slut her husband cheated with and insist he goes to the cops.

And then the ghost killed him in a river.

What a waste.

45 Years (the only film without Ford in it I saw this week btw) was one of the most depressing movies from 2015. Imagine you're married all those years and then you find out if only some chick didn't fell off the mountain your husband would be with her instead. Just awful.

Frantic. This was on TV so many times but I never paid enough attention. I am attaching the evidence because holy shit, there is a scene where Ford is completely naked and covering himself with a teddy bear. I mean the movie was good but seriously that scene stole the show.

They just don't make them like they used to. And I don't just mean awesome and adorably obscene movie scenes.

Also the man is objectified in every single film he does. I love that. Another film I saw was Six Days, Seven Nights and he was shirtless in every other scene.There's even a scene in Working Girl where he changes a shirt in his office and while he is shirtless all the women there are clapping.

See these are the movies made by people who know what women want to see. Beautiful men being shirtless - YES. Eddie Redmayne's penis - NO. For the love of God - NO.

I spent an hour today making this gifset and my God was it an hour well spent.

Oh fine. I might have watched that movie twice this week.

OK some news!

I have been writing more think pieces then usual. First I go after Tarantino, then as usual after the Church. I got such nice feedback on Tarantino one. Like "you're a c***" or "Daisy deserved better, it should have been you". Who writes that to a person who simply lays out opinions about a movie? I probably should have reported the latter comment to Google because that's just fucked up.

I'm still really sick which sucks because Golden Globes are this Sunday. I will still watch it but I hate being sick when it's time for my favorite ceremony of the season. Plus as usual I'll write a recap and probably gonna live tweet the whole thing so this is gonna be super exhausting.

BAFTA nominations are announced tomorrow and I am expecting a double nomination for Hardy. The Revenant gets released in US tomorrow as well and there seems to be a lot of praise for Tom from movie goers. Oh how awesome would Oscars be if he gets nominated and attends the ceremony.

The trailer and the poster for High-Rise were released and they are both very good.

Apparently Disney is not happy just with Star Wars and Marvel bringing in so much money so they want to sodomize another classic.This time we are gonna see the origin story for Cruella de Vil. And she will be played by Emma Stone. This is just....not good.

Exciting The Big Bang Theory news! One of the very few good things about Nebraska was June Squibb's performance and she is gonna be playing Sheldon's meemaw!

No surprise there but we get a confirmation - Hans Zimmer will score Chris Nolan's Dunkirk.

Here we go - chilling first trailer for The Conjuring 2. I was unable to gif it because it would be such a seizure trigger. Hopefully the sequel is just as good as the first movie which was one of the better horrors of the last few years.

This was the week so much evil was defeated - Star Wars passed Avatar in US box office - hopefully it gets number 1 globally soon - and HBO announced the most horrible thing they ever showed on their network and one of the worst things that has ever been unleashed on this world is finally coming to an end.

Have you guys seen the way John Krasinski looks in his new movie? Jesus!

Keith, Courtney and Brittani have very different reactions to Hateful Eight

Andrew is back with Fistful of Thoughts

CinemaRomantico shares random cinematic awards for 2015

MettelRay chooses 5 worst movies of 2015

Alex lists top 10 movies of 2015 and a particularly delightful surprise for me - he saw Respire which I've been recommending since seeing it last spring and he included it on number 3 in his list

m.brown reviews Focus and I'm sure the review is better than the movie. I started watching it months ago and still don't feel like finishing it.

RELATED POSTS:

All right, since the late release of The Revenant in my country made it impossible for me to see the movie by now - and finish my final list for 2015 and complete my best shots, best scenes and best performances list, I can only publish one list other than best trailers - best film tracks.

This has not been a year as great when it comes to film music as 2014 was, but we still got one masterpiece of a score in Tom Holkenborg's brilliant work for Fury Road. We also got a whole bunch of weird, eerie and delightful scores and many surprises (I'm stunned how delicate The Revenant score is). Last year I listed top 15 tracks, this year it's top 10 but with addition of two other categories.

Best trailer song:
5. Lunacy by Swans (Macbeth trailer)
4. Rumble and Sway by Jamie N Commons (Hail Caesar! trailer)
3. All Along the Watchtower (remix) by Jimmy Hendrix (The Martian trailer)
2. My Blood by Ellie Goulding (Cinderella trailer)
1. I'm So Sorry by Imagine Dragons (Legend trailer)

Best use of song in the movie:
5. Disintegration by The Cure (used in miniature fight scene in Ant-Man)
4. The Mighty Rio Grande by This Will Destroy You (used in the escape scene in Room)
3. Grew up at Midnight by the Maccabees (used in the ending of Steve Jobs)
2. Slave to Love (special 12 re-mix) by Bryan Ferry (used in the ending of Kingsman)
1. Free bird by Lynard Skynard (used in the church scene in Kingsman)

Best original track:
10. Old Maid (Disasterpeace, It Follows)
Admittedly It Follows score is not something to listen to separately from the movie unless you want to give yourself intense nightmares. But it's one of the best, most unique scores of the year and that list would feel very incomplete without it.

9. Let Them Up (Tom Holkenborg, Mad Max: Fury Road)

With a movie like that and a score like that, you've gotta end with a bang. Let them up is such a perfect track accompanying what we are seeing - the ascension of Furiosa and the wives and Max leaving - the triumph yet a hint of the new journey ahead.

8. Jim Jones at Botany Bay (Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight)
While when it comes to Daisy most of Tarantino's new movie repulsed me, there is one particularly delightful scene with Jennifer Jason Leigh shining as her Daisy, who is in on a major secret, grabs a guitar, starts singing and observes carefully what is happening all around her. It's such a nice moment and the way Leigh makes the catchy song into her way of telling them all to hell in the end of it, is brilliant.

7. Underwater (Johnny Jewel, Lost River)

One of the year's most overlooked films is Ryan Gosling's Lost River. Sure it's strange as hell, almost unbearably disturbing at times and overall kinda mediocre but what the film does have is amazing atmosphere. And part of that atmosphere is created with really incredible soundtrack. Gosling clearly picked a thing or two from Refn.

6. The Woods (Part I) (Keegan DeWitt, Queen of Earth)
One of the things that makes Queen of Earth so damn eerie is the fantastic score which reminded me a little of Solaris and a lot of Take Shelter. The strange sounds coming in together and still forming memorable and oddly soothing and at times unsettling melodies are one of the most amazing things about the movie

5. Discovering Buffalo (Ryūichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto, The Revenant)
And it just keeps rising and rising. Beautiful.

4. Turn Hell Hound (Jed Kurzel, Macbeth)
The music in Macbeth is one of the best things about it and one track stands above others - it's the memorable, stunning and exciting Turn Hell Hound, we hear near the end of the movie during the final duel scene.

3. Carrying Glass (Ryūichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto, The Revenant)
The Revenant score is not at all what I was expecting. I counted maybe 4 or 5 more intense moments on the score - most of it is so subtle, delicate and melancholic. The finest such piece is Carrying Glass which is just such a thing of beauty.

2. Chapter Doof (Tom Holkenborg, Mad Max: Fury Road)
This is the track accompanying the final action scene in the movie and in it most of the themes and cool notes of the film's music come together. And there is this one particularly divine moment - at 3:01 when the guitar comes in, it's just absolute heaven.

1. Brothers in Arms (Tom Holkenborg, Mad Max: Fury Road)
Brothers in Arms is a track that plays in the most riveting moment of the movie - Max and Furiosa escaping from the canyon and for the very first time truly fighting together. Holkenborg has composed one hell of a music here - creating a sort of anthem and a great, energetic, beautiful track that goes so well with the scene and is so memorable on its own. (special extended version of the track). Since June I knew nothing will come along in 2015 that sounds better than this and I was right.

Special mention:
The Revenant Teaser/Trailer track (?, The Revenant)

Well, this is a first. The best track of the year hands down and I'm not even entirely sure who is responsible for it nor is it used in the actual movie so I cannot have it at #1. Three different artists are credited in that youtube clips and obviously there was some editing here to add the 'breathing' sound. I'm so disappointed that this track was not included on the soundtrack nor is it evidently used in the film. The music is available on itunes but that's it. What a shame because it's been years since I heard such memorable piece of music before.

The magical journey of Golden Globes night started for me way before the ceremony actually started.

For most of the afternoon I was like 'meh, I'm just watching for Gervais hosting and to see Dicaprio's speech". "Tom Hardy is not gonna be there, Harrison is not gonna be there, I don't care".

But then, 3 hours before the ceremony, as I was watching interviews with Harrison Ford on youtube the Bear from The Revenant twitter account (yep it exists and yep I follow it) tweeted this:

I took the news like that:

So clearly I've lost my shit. And clearly it didn't happen and that last category was kinda a disaster due to AWFUL PLANNING OF THE CEREMONY but we get to that

Fassbender is getting interviewed just as Muppet Schumer arrives

Benioff also arrived, it's like the festival of awful

Harrison is being interviewed!:

Matt Lauer: Is this an event you look forward to? Harrison Ford: Oh yeah. Can’t wait. I’ve been camping out in the parking lot for the last four days.

Gervais is on fire during his monologue, he goes after Polanski, Lawrence and says not even Sean Penn finds him when he goes into hiding

Jonah as the bear from the Revenant and Channing Tatum are on stage. That was hard to watch.

Winslet for best supporting actress!! She seems very surprised

J.Lo and The Rock present supporting actress in drama goes to Maura Tierney for the Affair

Samberg presents best actress in comedy series which goes to Rachel Bloom

Best comedy series goes to Mozart in the jungle

Viola Davis presents Carol

Matt Damon presents the Martian after Ricky introducing him and laughing at the fact this was qualified as Comedy

Orlando bloom and Bryce Dallas Howard present best mini series to wolf hall

amber heard and Jaime Alexander present best actor in mini series to Oscar Isaac, as he is on stage the camera shows Harrison being all proud. So cute!

Statham, McCarthy and Fig present Spy and Statham is hilarious on stage doing "I did everything" Rick Ford impression

Tom Ford and Lady Gaga present best actor in supporting mini series to Christian Slater and he says hi to Harrison. I'm of course loving the shit outta this.

Jaime foxx presents best score to Ennio Morricone, Tarantino accepts and goes insane on stage as usual. He also did some horrendous shit like forgetting Morricone actually won before and calling movie music composing "ghetto".

When Jaime Foxx disapproves....that's bad.

Foxx introduces his daughter who is miss Globe or whatever they are calling it, Ricky comes on stage and gives them hilarious forced polite smile

Ricky announces Longoria and Ferrera and says Trump would deport them if elected

They present best actor in drama series which goes to Jon Hamm

Gervais announces the two disasters who present Joy and Trainwreck. Muppet says her celebrity couple name should be AmyTomHardy or something and I nearly vomit. As they are on stage they actually show Redmayne and I want to dive in my own vomit. If these two ever host I'm not watching. That is just torture, it is straight from my nightmares:

Amy Adams presents actor in comedy to Matt Damon who gives a very nice speech

Kurt Russel and Kate Hudson present best animation to Inside Out

Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt present The Big Short and they bicker adorably on stage

JK Simmons and Patricia Arqutte present supporting actor to surprised Stallone who gives wonderful speech. The crowd went wild when he won

Mark Walhberg and Will Ferrel present best script to Aaron Sorkin for Steve Jobs

some kids present best actor in comedy to Gael Garcia Bernal

We see Kate and Leo chatting!

Helen Mirren and Gerard Butler present best foreign film to Son of Saul

Ken Jong and Kevin Hart present best actress in TV series to lady gaga. As she approaches DiCaprio does the funniest thing:

Gervais in the best moment of the night introduces Gibson. Insane things happen:

Gibson presents Mad Max

Krasinski and Olivia Wilde give best drama series to Mr Robot

Tom Hanks presents the special award to Denzel Washington. Hanks gives a speech that was a bit over the top

Katy Perry presents best song to that awful bond song

Chris Evans presents Spotlight

Gervais comes on stage and reads "this is the most well respected actor in the room. That's just madness!". And this is about Freeman.

Morgan Freeman presents director to Inarittu

Kate Bosworth and Sophia Bush present best actress in drama series to that Empire lady

Michael Keaton gives award to Lawrence for best actress in comedy. Harrison claps for her. Don't do that, sir.

Maggie Gyllenhaal presents Room

Tobey McGuire presents The Revenant

Jim Carrey presents best comedy to The Martian. Carrey was the best presenter, his entire monologue was pure gold.

Ricky starts announcing Redmayne and reads all of this as if he was a chick. Then Ricky goes 'it's a dude?!' and gives Redmayne a suspicious stare as he enters

Redmayne gives award for best actress to Brie Larson

Moore comes on stage and LEO WINS! Biggest ovation of the night. Leo gives a great speech and gives a major shout out to Hardy, who as he says 'would never leave him to die in real life'. /li>

In an insanely rushed manner Ricky doesn't even appear on stage. Harrison comes in and in about 15 seconds time announces The Revenant won Best Drama. They had about 30 seconds to say thank yous. WHAT THE FUCK. You let Ridley Scott go on and on and this happens. How on Earth can you give a minute for the most important category? Ricky didn't even have a closing speech! Who planned this ceremony? Why did some TV people get minutes for their category but the last one was rushed?!

Let me make a point here - when Harrison fucking Ford is in the building you make a fuss. When he agrees to present something - you make a fuss. You do not tell him to GO, get on stage and don't make a fuss and just read the winner.

Ricky did however say as the credits were rolling - “From myself and Mel Gibson, shalom!”for a goodbye

That was an odd ceremony. The pacing was all fucked up, Gervais who was hilarious was criminally underused and the lack of love and some sort of funny Gervais intro for Ford is just a terrible thing. No love for Mad Max but Revenant got a huge boost and Leo is finally winning that Oscar next month, guys!

Tom Hardy as John Fitzgerald in The Revenant

I always watch the nominations live. I sit there, like a moron, looking at that stage and wait for them to announce the nominees. But given that this year I'm sick when the nominations happened...I was asleep in bed after taking antibiotics.

My mother woke me up to say the nominations were announced. I was like 'OK' grabbed my phone and half-heartedly browsed the list. And then I saw Tom Hardy's name and I made a sound that made Gustav startled. I literally sat up. I just cannot believe it.

I even wrote an entire fucking article about the injustice being done to Hardy this season. While there was certainly injustice, the most shameful coming from BAFTA - this is an identical situation to Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street" two years back - no BAFTA, no Globe and no SAG nominations for a supporting role in a film starring DiCaprio that in the end earned the actor an Oscar nomination. I'm thrilled beyond words - I was so happy for Hill, but my favorite Hardy who leads the movie with 10 nominations (Mad Max) and starred in the most beloved one so far (12 nominations for The Revenant) being now an Academy Award nominated actor....that is lovely. Even though this all happened on a particularly sad day - today we lost Alan Rickman who was never even Oscar nominated.

Best Animated Feature
“Anomalisa” "Boy And The World"
“Inside Out”
“Shaun The Sheep Movie”
"When Marnie Was There"

- I have only seen Inside Out so I cannot make any contribution here.

Best Sound Editing
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
"Sicario"
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

Best Sound Mixing
"Bride Of Spies"
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

- sad how the only nominations for Star Wars are in technical categories, but at least it's something.Maybe Revenant wins here? I have not seen the movie (2 more weeks) but the Academy clearly loves it

Best Makeup & Hairstyling
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
"The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared"
“The Revenant”

- superglad to see Mad Max here. I imagine making Leo look like shit wins here.

Best Costume Design
“Carol”
“Cinderella”
“The Danish Girl”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
"The Revenant"

- it's a big shame Crimson Peak got nothing, it is actually my win in this particular category. Very glad to see Cinderella love and nominations for ingenious but simple costumes in Mad Max (specifically the Dag's attire).

Best Song
"Earned It" from "Fifty Shades Of Grey"
"Manta Ray" from "Racing Extinction"
“Til It Happens To You” from “The Hunting Ground”
“Simple Song 3” from “Youth”
"Writing's On The Wall" from "Spectre"

- that this dying cat parade from Spectre is gaining awards buzz and actual nominations is a travesty

Best Documentary Feature
“Amy”
“Cartel Land”
"The Look Of Silence"
"What Happened Miss Simone"
"Winter On Fire: Ukraine's Fight For Freedom"

- seen neither, as usual. I hope at least I'll see Amy

Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins - “Sicario”
Edward Lachman - “Carol”
Emmanuel Lubezki - “The Revenant”
Robert Richardson - "The Hateful Eight"
John Seale - “Mad Max: Fury Road”

- beautiful line up with the exception of Carol, but I suppose it's well shot movie too. Hopefully Chivo wins this and that will be his third one in the row

Best Live-Action Short Film
"Ave Maria"
"Day One"
"Everything Will Be Okay"
"Shok"
"Stutterer"
Best Documentary Short Film
"Body Team 12"
"Chau, Beyond The Lines"
"Claude Lanzmann: Spectres OF The Shoah"
"A Girl In The River"
"Last Day Of Freedom
Best Animated Short Film
"Bear Story"
"Prologue"
"Sanjay's Super Team"
"We Can't Live Without Cosmos"
"World Of Tomorrow"

- again, cannot make a comment

Best Visual Effects
“Ex Machina”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
"The Revenant"
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

- so glad for The Revenant. Hopefully Judy the Bear wins this
Best Production Design
“Bridge Of Spies”
“The Danish Girl”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
"The Revenant"

- Bridge of Spies, really? Again Crimson Peak was snubbed. What production design was there in The Martian? Space rubbish?

Best Foreign Language Feature
"Embrace Of The Serpent"
“Mustang”
“Son Of Saul”
“Theeb”
“A War”

- my ignorance prevents me to make a comment once more

Best Score
Carter Burwell - “Carol”
Ennio Morricone - “The Hateful Eight”
Thomas Newman - “Bridge Of Spies”
Johann Johannson - "Sicario"
John Williams - “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

- Redmayne and Lawerence being nominated is a travesty but the single worst nomination happen here - I tried listening to Williams lazy and repetitive TFA score and couldn't. That this was eligible and got a nomination while The Revenant was deemed illegible is just gross. Also the category is missing the most wonderful and inventive score of the year - for Mad Max.

Best Film Editing
Hank Corwin - “The Big Short”
Margaret Sixel - “Mad Max: Fury Road”
Tom McArdle - “Spotlight”
Stephen Mirrione - “The Revenant”
Maryann Brandon, Mary Jo Markey - "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"

- good choices all around, Mad Max in particular deserves this win

Best Adapted Screenplay
Drew Goddard - “The Martian”
Nick Hornby - “Brooklyn”
Adam McKay & Charles Randolph - “The Big Short”
Phyllis Nagy - “Carol”
Emma Donoghue - "Room"

- The Martian's screenplay is not the best and certainly not worthy of Oscar nomination. Carol bored me to tears, I'm gonna go ahead and say The Big Short deserves this because it made some of us understand stuff we never would without it and others feel very very stupid because they still don't

Best Original Screenplay
Matt Charman, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen - “Bridge Of Spies”
Alex Garland - “Ex Machina”
Josh Cooley, Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve - “Inside Out”
Tom McCarthy & Josh Singer - “Spotlight”
Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Savage, Alan Wenkus - "Straight Outta Compton"

- Ex-Machina is so overrated. This story was told countless times before. I hope Spotlight gets it because for what it is, it is excellent. I'm so freaking glad Tarantino didn't get in for his irresponsible and misguided screenplay.

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh - “The Hateful Eight”
Rooney Mara - “Carol”
Rachel McAdams - “Spotlight”
Alicia Vikander - “The Danish Girl"
Kate Winslet - "Steve Jobs"

- I'm stunned McAdams got in. It must mean they really liked the movie so it's probably winning Best Film. Adams is not bad, she is very, very good, but there were so many better supporting performances this year. Leigh winning would be nice but her role has so many ugly implications thanks to Tarantino's script I'm gonna be rooting for Winslet here as every 'they will get married one day' Leo and Kate fan does

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale - “The Big Short”
Tom Hardy - "The Revenant"
Mark Ruffalo - “Spotlight”
Mark Rylance - “Bridge Of Spies”
Sylvester Stallone - “Creed”

- oh gosh I'm just so freaking happy for my main man Hardy. Beautiful year he had, I have yet to see The Revenant but I'm sure he is outstanding. Ruffalo's presence here is odd, given how Keaton was much better but Ruffalo has the single showy scene in the movie and just for that scene I'm OK with his nominations. What the FUCK is Christian Bale doing here. He was easily the worst part of the Big Short ensemble. Gosling was so much better than him, not to mention that the list is missing my current win in the category - Del Toro for Sicario. Are you telling me that anyone out there actually thinks Bale being all twitchy and weird was better than Del Toro in Sicario? For weeks now me and others were saying 'if Stallone is nominated, he is gonna win'. I hope it happens, his work in Creed is beautiful and it would be such a fantastic Oscar moment.

Best Actor
Bryan Cranston - “Trumbo”
Matt Damon - “The Martian”
Leonardo DiCaprio - “The Revenant”
Michael Fassbender - “Steve Jobs”
Eddie Redmayne - “The Danish Girl”

- saw Trumbo yesterday and that movie has no business being anywhere near nominations, Cranston tried but the notion this was nominated while Hardy - who was also in mediocre film - is not for his amazing work in Legend...NO. Redmayne being nominated for his psychotic smiling and showing his dick on screen makes me sick. Leo is easily winning this this year. The only person who could have been a threat - 11 year old Jacob Tremblay - was sadly not nominated for Room

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett - “Carol”
Brie Larson - “Room”
Jennifer Lawrence - "Joy"
Charlotte Rampling - “45 Years”
Saoirse Ronan - “Brooklyn”

- Jennifer Lawrence with 4th Oscar nomination. Can someone hand me over a bucket? Alan Rickman had none. And this basic chick has four. Well at least Rampling got in, even though just yesterday I heard many Academy voters didn't finish watching the screener for her movie because it was "too long". They are such charmers, aren't they? Anyways this is the first nomination for incredible Rampling, so that's one of the nicest surprises this year that the Academy finally wised up. Let me write this again - Jennifer Lawrence - 4 nominations and 1 win, Rampling - 1st nomination at the age of 70. I think Brie Larson is winning here.

Best Director
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - “The Revenant”
Adam McKay - “The Big Short”
George Miller - "Mad Max Fury Road"
Lenny Abrahamson - "Room"
Tom McCarthy - "Spotlight"

- can Inarittu win 2 times in the row? He can but it would be so much cooler if Miller won for his incredible masterpiece.

Best Picture
“The Big Short”
“Bridge Of Spies"
“Brooklyn”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
"Room"
“Spotlight”

- no Carol which I consider crazy overrated, but Room, small indie movie is here. That bodes so well for Larson and I think there is no doubt she is gonna win that actress Oscar. The biggest deal is obviously the nomination for Mad Max - this is not the type of movie the Academy goes for and it's the 2nd most nominated movie of the year and the one with Best Picture nomination. Given how it is my favorite movie from 2015, I'm thrilled. Can Academy get even more progressive and actually award it the statue? I doubt it and I bet on Spotlight, but this is certainly a lovely, lovely day for the film.

(210) Fermez ton bouche, son + links

(211) Let's add a white horse and see ladies faint + links

Macbeth

Soundtrack Wednesday - Macbeth

(212) Survive this gif, and nothing can kill you + links

10 best trailers in 2015

Promote, promote your way to that nomination...

(213) I hope Ricky Gervais throws up on them + links

(214) Mercy! + links

(Probably endless) list of things I love about Mad Max: Fury Road, part 1.

(215) May The Force be with you this Christmas + links

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

My issues with treatment of Daisy Domergue in The Hateful Eight

(216) Someone is building the time machine to the 80's, right? + links

(Probably endless) list of things I love about Mad Max: Fury Road, part 2.

Spotlight is a great film, but it should have hit harder

(217) I really need that time machine. Seriously. + links

10 best film tracks of 2015

The 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards

88th Academy Awards Nominations