And the winner is...

Once again it's that time of the year where I tell you who would take the Oscars home if it were in my hands which, unfortunately, it isn't.  Oh well!  Here goes...



Actor in a Leading Role
This is a difficult category cause I loved both Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises and Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood.  Having said that, I know Daniel is going to win and that's going to make me mega happy.

Actor in a Supporting Role
Philip is one of my favorite actors but he already has an Oscar, and Hal Holbrook was awesome in Into The Wild, but in this category the Oscar should go to Javier Bardem and no one else.  His performance in No Country For Old Men was jaw-droppingly amazing.

Actress in Leading Role
Out of the 5 nominees just 2 of them deserve to be in this category, Julie Christie and Marion Cotillard. They are both incredible, whoever wins would be great.  But for sure Julie is going to take it, her 1965 Oscar needs a little brother. 

Actress in a Supporting Role
I'm scared that since they obviously won't give it to Cate for Elizabeth, they may give her this one as a consolation prize.  I hope the academy does the right thing and Amy gets it. Ruby was great, but Amy was better.

Animated Feature Film:
Ratatouille.

Art Direction:
Jack Fisk and Jim Erickson for There Will Be Blood

Cinematography:
Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood. Sadly and less deservingly, Roger Deakins is going to get it for No Country for Old Men.

Directing:
The Coens.  I love Paul Thomas Anderson and he deserves it.  But the Coens are gonna win.

Film Editing:
There Will Be Blood.

Makeup:
La vie en rose

Music:
Once is going to win (ugh).

Best Film:
No Country For Old Men is going to win, undoubtedly.  But There Will Be Blood Deserves to win. 

Adapted Screenplay:
This is yet again another category that No Country For Old Men will take but which There Will Be Blood deserves to win.  Actually, if it were up to me I'd give it to Mr. Anderson since he got more creative with the material.

Original screenplay
Ratatouille should win but they are going to give it to Juno, as a consolation prize for not winning (thank God) Best Film.

U2 3D

Irish people are essentially latin people who don't know how to dance
~Bono

Today I went to see the U2 3D movie, it was better than I expected.

U2 is the band I've seen live the most times, I also have the DVDs and videos of their concerts, even a very bad bootleg video bought on the streets of NY, where you hear the guy filming it singing instead of Bono. He had the camera hanging from his neck and he jumps a lot, and claps maniacally... but let's leave that review for another occasion.
Anyway, you don't need to have watched prior videos to know that U2 3D is not your regular music video, and you don't need to have been to a U2 concert to know that U2 3D is not better than the real thing. It's just a different experience. A Must for all U2 fans.

I had an amazing concert movie experience many years ago, when I went to see a Queen concert at this auditorium used for real concerts. The sound and the quality of the image were so great that people started taking their lighters out and singing along with Freddie (who IRL was already dead), it was a really powerful experience. U23D was more computer-like in the sense of being just between the screen and you, you couldn't take your eyes off the screen cause the magic was gone. There was no audience participation (other than the pair of retards sitting behind me talking), no lighters lit and no cellphones taking pics (it's not like they would look good anyway) but it was still amazing. The perspective changes a lot during the movie, making you feel more like the ghost of a U2 fan than a U2 fan at the concert. Sometimes you are part of the crowd, other times you are standing on the stage and others just floating around.

Aesthetically cool moments abound, like when Bono draws some animations on the air, all the parts where U2esque messages fill the screen, and when a rain of letters showers you.

I only have 2 negative things to say about the experience, first is that the new 3D glasses are a little uncomfortable, and take a little bit to get used to, though it happens after a while. Kinda. Second is that the movie is too short, at around 85 minutes you just get:
Vertigo
Beautiful Day
New Year's Day
Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet the Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Where the Streets Have No Name"
One
The Fly
With or Without You
Yahweh

In the end U23D is really beautiful musically and visually, and the medium is so immersive that a couple of times I felt a certain kind of high. A sensation that if it could be sold in little paper bags in a corner, I'd be broke.