Django Unchained [2012]

Django Unchained is a 2012 production, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, about a slave-turned-bounty hunter (Jamie Foxx) who sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio), with the help of the man who saved him in the first place (Christoph Waltz).

I must say, from the get go, that I was in love with this film 5 minutes in, when Django is rescued by a smooth-talking, surprisingly violent Dr.King Schultz. The quality of the script is unquestionable- from the fast, no-bullshit, quirky dialogue, to the well-built characters, and ending, of course, with the action-packed scenes, everything is wonderfully constructed, and more importantly, entertaining. I rarely see movies who bring both story and entertainment, both quality and fun, and Django Unchained definitely accomplishes that.

One extra thing I do have to mention about the script, but mostly about how Tarantino builds and displays his stories- the man loves violence and is not afraid to show it. I think he is one of the most visual, direct and bloody directors out there when it comes to this topic, and you can see it in the way he shoots the scenes, the close-ups and quantity of blood used. It doesn't bother me, but you cannot help to notice it, and that's why I mentioned it.

As for the actual directing, what more can I say about mister Tarantino? His movies are always visually appealing, attracting attention with every frame or shot. Personally, I loved and still remember the scenes showing Django killing the Brittle brothers, or the funny moment with Big Daddy and his employees on the field, having the bag argument, and of course, the final showdown in Candie's house. As always, his cameo is interesting and well placed, and I especially liked his exit.
 
As for the other filmmaking aspects, I have nothing but praise. The sets and costumes were well-executed and fun, and a definite highlight was the fantastic soundtrack, with "Who did that to you?", the John Legend song, taking the crown.

If you thought I ran out of good things to say about the film, than you probably didn't realize I haven't mentioned the casting. Oh man, the actors in Django Unchained were just fantastic. Jamie Foxx, playing the main character, perfectly embodied it and gave a very good performance that was sadly overlooked, but I can understand why, considering the supporting actors were just as wonderful as the lead. Three of them deserve high praise and an Oscar each for their roles: first, Christoph Waltz, in a part similar to his in Inglorious Basterds, but with a lot more humanity; he had great chemistry with both Jamie, and the other two secondary men, who I love and root for more than him. Oh, how can I put in words how much I enjoyed watching both Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L.Jackson on screen? Their characters were obviously despicable, but I couldn't not like their sassy spirit, confident stride and funny banter. DiCaprio, in particular, was spectacular as the vile plantation owner who always gets what he wants, and I seriously cannot understand who he didn't get a nomination for his performance (case in point, watch the running man and the dogs scene, or the dinner discussion, and you will understand).

In the end, I can only summarize my review and just say that Django Unchained is one of the best films I have seen in months and it deserves all your attention- I would recommend it to anyone. If I would have to rate it, it would get a 5/5 from me!

Oscar nominations- the 2013 edition

People, the Oscar nominations are here and there are some surprises. I like this year- not only for the shocks, but also because you can't know for sure who is going to win in most categories, and that makes it more exciting. Seth MacFarlane seems funny, so I guess will have a good time, too. This year's Oscars will be entertaining.

The big players- Lincoln, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Les Miserables, have all gotten multiple nominations, but I wouldn't be surprised to see major letdowns when the winners will be announced, especially in categories like Director or Picture.

Let's get down to business

Best Picture- nominations
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Amour
Django Unchained
Argo

Who will probably win? Lincoln or Zero Dark Thirty
Who I want to win? I haven't seen all of them, but I am rooting for either Django Unchained or Argo
Surprises? For me, Beasts, I wasn't expecting to see it here


Best Actor- nominations
Daniel Day Lewis- "Lincoln"
Denzel Washington- "Flight"
Hugh Jackman- "Les Miserables"
Bradley Cooper- "Silver Linings Playbook"
Joaquin Phoenix- "The Master"

Who will probably win? Daniel Day Lewis is the almost sure winner
Who I want to win? Call me crazy, but I am rooting for Bradley Cooper, although I know he won't get it. So let's go to choice nr.2, which is Hugh Jackman, and nr.3 is Denzel Washington
Surprises? None too big, but I was happy when I saw Cooper's name there, I wasn't sure he will make it


Best Actress- nominations
Naomi Watts- "The Impossible"
Jessica Chastain- "Zero Dark Thirty"
Jennifer Lawrence- "Silver Linings Playbook"
Emmanuele Riva- "Amour"
Q. Wallis- "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Who will probably win? Chastain or Lawrence...or maybe a surprise win by Riva
Who I want to win? Hmm...I don't really care for this category, no female really impressed me this year. Mabe Lawrence, she would be nice- young, beautiful, quirky, talented. Yeah, my pick is for Lawrence
Surprises? Q.Wallis, no doubt. The rest were seen in the other award nominations lists, too.


Best Supporting Actor- nominations
Alan Arkin- "Argo"
Robert De Niro- "Silver Linings Playbook"
Philip Seymour Hoffman- "The Master"
Tommy Lee Jones- "Lincoln"
Christoph Waltz- "Django Unchained"

Who will probably win? I think the battle is between DeNiro and Tommy Lee Jones
Who I want to win? Hoffman, because I have a soft spot for him, or De Niro
Surprises? Uh...Alan Arkin. Don't get me wrong, he is a wonderful actor, but he just didn't impress me in Argo, his part was not awards worthy, I really don't get it. I would have easily put Ezra Miller or Dwight Henry or Garrett Hedlund there instead of him. Oh, and where is poor Leonardo DiCaprio? poor man, what does he have to do to get an Oscar?


Best Supporting Actress-nominations
Amy Adams- "The Master"
Sally Field- "Lincoln"
Anne Hathaway- "Les Misérables"
Helen Hunt- "The Sessions"
Jacki Weaver- "Silver Linings Playbook"

Who will probably win? Again, I think it's between Sally Field and Anne Hathaway
Who I want to win? Amy Adams is such a wonderful, talented actress, I would love for her to win. But I would be fine with Hathaway, too, she is equally amazing.
Surprises? Jacki Weaver- a nice surprise, I liked her more in SLP than DeNiro


Best Director- nominations
Amour: Michael Haneke
Beasts of the Southern Wild: Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi: Ang Lee
Lincoln: Steven Spielberg
Silver Linings Playbook: David O. Russell

Who will probably win? Very hard to say, considering the surprises, but I'll go for Spielberg or Lee
Who I want to win? Please, please, just don't make Bigelow win again- oh wait, she is not on the list.Yey! Actually, you can scratch Spielberg from my list, too, I wasn't impressed. Anyone else is perfect. Maybe Ang Lee? or Behn Zeitlin? that would be shocking
Surprises? Zeitlin, Haneke and even Russell- this was by far the most shocking category reveal for me, and probably for most. No Tarantino? No Paul Thomas Anderson? No Wes Anderson? No Ben Affleck?


Best Original Screenplay- nominations
Amour: Written by Michael Haneke
Django Unchained: Written by Quentin Tarantino
Flight: Written by John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom: Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty: Written by Mark Boal

Who will probably win? A three-way between Django, Zero Dark Thirty and Moonrise Kingdom. Wes Anderson might bag it
Who I want to win? I'm rooting for Tarantino or Wes Anderson, I loved Moonrise Kingdom
Surprises? Amour, I didn't imagine there would be so much love for it


Best Adapted Screenplay- nominations
Argo: Screenplay by Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild: Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi: Screenplay by David Magee
Lincoln: Screenplay by Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook: Screenplay by David O. Russell

Who will probably win? Again, I don't know for sure, it could be Argo or SLP, maybe even Lincoln
Who I want to win? SLP- a great film and the script was definitely one of its high points.
Surprises? Life of Pi?


Best Cinematography- nominations
Anna Karenina: Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained: Robert Richardson
Life of Pi: Claudio Miranda
Lincoln: Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall: Roger Deakins

Who will probably win? Life of Pi or Lincoln, they will go for the big guns
Who I want to win? Anna Karenina- I have a soft spot for this film and I want it to have some recognition
Surprises? Skyfall? I mean I get why they nominated it, but I wasn't expecting it

Best Score- nominations
Anna Karenina: Dario Marianelli
Argo: Alexandre Desplat
Life of Pi: Mychael Danna
Lincoln: John Williams
Skyfall: Thomas Newman

Who will probably win? Argo or Lincoln
Who I want to win? Again, Anna Karenina or Skyfall, I want some surprises in there, too
Surprises? Skyfall?

Best Foreign Film- nominations
Amour: Austria
Kon-Tiki: Norway
No: Chile
A Royal Affair: Denmark
War Witch: Canada

Who will probably win? Amour
Who I want to win? In absence of Beyond the Hills, Untouchables, or Rust&Bone, I am going with Amour
Surprises? Totally disappointed Beyond the Hills, the Romanian entry, didn't get it. Where in the hell did Kon-Tiki come from?

Best Documentary- nominations
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man

Who will probably win? I don't know...maybe Searching for Sugar Man or How to Survive a Plague
Who I want to win? Searching for Sugarman, I really liked it
Surprises? No The Imposter? No Queen of Versailles?


Best Animated Feature- nominations
Brave: Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
Frankenweenie: Tim Burton
ParaNorman: Sam Fell and Chris Butler
The Pirates! Band of Misfits: Peter Lord
Wreck-It Ralph: Rich Moore

Who will probably win? Uh, Frankenweenie....or maybe Brave. Surprise win: Wreck-it Ralph
Who I want to win? ParaNorman- my favorite animation this year, very funny and well made, but probably doesn't stand a chance
Surprises? The Pirates


One month and a half to go- I can't wait: the red carpet filled with beautiful men and some nice dressed women, the dreaded speeches, the "OMG- he/she/it did not just win!", the opening monologue and much more- 24th of February cannot come sooner!

Who are you rooting for?

Random musings on recent film news

There was a lot of chatter around the film industry in these last couple of days about certain projects and I just wanted to talk about a few things that caught my attention and made me excited!

Plus, the To See This Summer list :)


Film news


Anna Karenina trailer
The trailer stood out immediately by its fantastic art direction and cinematography- everything looks breathtaking. It also made me want to read the book, as the extremely rapid succession of scenes seemed quite interesting and featured a lot of conflict and character development, something I always like to find in a movie. Keira Knightley is stunning and I think she will, once again, give a wonderful performance. The ones I am worried about are Jude Law and Aaron Johnson- I don't know if it's the costume&make up's fault or if it's simply the casting, but I don't really like or connect with their characters. You may say that is the point, but either way, I am not convinced, there is just something off about both of them. Despite those two, I am very intrigued and I can't wait to see the movie. The man who directed Pride&Prejudice and Atonement will always have my attention!

The Master trailer
Paul Thomas Anderson- There will be blood and Magnolia. Stop. Just take my money already, you know I want to see this movie and I haven't even pushed play. Ok. Let's see it anyway! Hmm..in true Anderson style, we have a complex, rather weird screenplay, with fantastic performances and a remarkable score...all that in 2 minutes. Yes, I will see it!

12 years a slave
Whenever I hear about this movie, I immediately think about Django Unchained- I don't know why, maybe it's because they have similar storylines, but I always connect those two. And, honestly, there is nothing wrong about that, as both seem to be fantastic and I am excited to see them. But I love 12 years a slave more for two HUGE, MAGNIFICENT, apparently PERFECT reasons: Steve McQueen is directing it and the cast is FANTASTIC (yes, they deserve caps lock). Just read the following names and try to imagine them in the same movie: Chiwitel Ejiofor, Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Taran Killam, Paul Giamatti (all are amongst my favorite actors, so I am over the moon for the male casting part) + Sarah Paulson and Alfre Woodward, who are both wonderful actresses. I don't care about anything else, I will go see this movie for sure, here is the recipe for success. I love Steve McQueen and I know he will not disappoint this time, either.
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2024544/

Maleficent
Angelina Jolie looks fantastic in the new still from the movie. Considering the visual quality of most re-invented Disney classics, I really want to see this, especially since it is darker and the cast is great (Sam Riley is in it and I love Elle Fanning). I am curious about the direction or approach they are going to take, especially when it comes to storyline. But 2014? why so far away?


To See This Summer list (UK release date)
- Killer Joe (29th June)
- Glastonbury the Movie (29th June)
- Magic Mike (guilty pleasure: hot men stripping, you understand, right? ) (11th July)
- The Dark Knight Rises (20th July)
- Step up 4 (call me crazy, but I like this franchise, I am sucker for dance movies and the music used for it) (10th August)
- Brave (17th August)
-Take this waltz (17th August)
- Lawless (7th September)
- Anna Karenina (7th September)

What are your thoughts about these news? What movies are you most looking forward to seeing this summer?