Central Perks.

Another 5 months (wow!) have passed since my last update, so I thought it would be the right time to write another one up. I’ve finished another 4 books, including one more Stephen King and Orson Scott Card. I’ve kind of slowed down because I was pretty busy over the last month or so because of work but I’ve got a lot of free time now so I should be able to double, hopefully.

Currently Reading:
The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

On the Shelf (*started but not finished):
A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin*
The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling*
The Book Theif by Markus Zusak
It by Stephen King
The Mist by Stephen King
The Ask and the Answer (Book 2 of the Chaos Walking trilogy) by Patrick Ness
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Little Star by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Let the Old Dreams Die by John Ajvide Lindqvist 

Finished: (**new!; Also ☆ are over 5)
**Carrie by Stephen King ☆☆☆☆☆
Salem’s Lot by Stephen King ☆☆☆☆.5
Labor Day by Joyce Maynard ☆☆☆☆
Submarine by Joe Dunthorne ☆☆☆☆☆
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness ☆☆☆☆☆
The Knife of Never Letting Go (Book 1 of the Chaos Walking trilogy) by Patrick Ness ☆☆☆
My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher ☆☆☆
The Fault in our Stars by John Green ☆☆☆☆.5
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green ☆☆☆☆
Looking for Alaska by John Green ☆☆.5
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie ☆☆☆
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick ☆☆☆☆☆
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick ☆☆☆☆.5
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill ☆☆☆
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs ☆☆☆.5
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NIght-Time by Mark Haddon ☆☆☆☆
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card ☆☆☆☆.5
**Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card ☆☆☆☆
The Accidental Genius of Weasel High by Rick Detorie ☆☆
The Metropolis Case by Matthew Gallaway ☆☆
**Atonement by Ian McEwan ☆☆☆☆
**The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert ☆☆☆.5

Short Wishlist:
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Inferno by Dan Brown

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I’m hoping to finish more over the next 6 weeks where I have more time before I have to pack up and leave the states. What books are you reading at the moment and what should I read?

I got to see Matilda the musical tonight, and it was a blast. Though most of us, including myself, know Matilda more as a film, it’s based on the book of Roald Dahl, which like most Dahl books have a much darker backstory than most. The musical dips into some of that - child abuse, neglect, death, bullying - but puts it in a colorful, shiny package, with creative choreography and genius songs, yet it does so with heart. Everything feels genuine, even in a world of stories and imagination.

Bertie Carvel, who plays Miss Trunchbull, is incredible, and performs the role with much gusto and even stays in character during the show’s closing bows. The kids are very good, and the show itself really makes great use of its small stage, even sending some of its cast members flying above the audience. My favorite song of the bunch (and favorite performance) is When I Grow Up, pictured above. The songs, as I’ve mentioned, are so good. Tim Minchin has created truly memorable and charming songs (my favorites include the aforementioned When I Grow Up, as well as Naughty and School Song, which has an incredible sequence on the show).

It’s a great musical that families will enjoy, and it’s spirited and lively throughout. Though there are some songs and scenes that seem a little too strange that seems to take you away from the show, it’s few and far between. And I mean, there’s no other show on Broadway where you get to see a little girl get thrown into the audience via her pigtails, so might as well watch for that!

This is something I’ve been doing for the past two years (2011 here, and 2012 here) and thought it would be great to write about it again, even if no one really cares. We’re nearing upfronts time which is when things kind of finalize for next season, so it’s prime time to reveal my list of pilots I most want to see. Of the entire list of 20, 13 went on to series (5 of which haven’t premiered!) while one’s pilot was shown (Mockingbird Lane) as a special. Four of the “honorable mentions” went on to series orders as well (but 2 haven’t premiered). Of the 12 that did premiere, 2 have been canceled and I regularly watch only 6 of the 10 currently on air.

But anyway this list is just a list of pilots I am looking forward to and hope they go to series so I can see them, because busted pilots (i.e. pilots not picked up) are rarely ever shown anywhere. I am basing my list on the logline, the cast, and the teams behind them - NOT the network’s slate, schedule, or anything like that. Last year, my top 6 were all ordered to series/shown on TV. We’ll see how it goes this year.

Trends from the networks are lots of thriller/horror/suspense/sci-fi/fantasy material which has been a big selling point as of late (Bates Motel, Hannibal, Defiance, Dracula, Under the Dome, Hemlock Grove and Penny Dreadful are some shows that just premiered or are set to premiere this coming year/season), spy/CIA/government plots after the success of Homeland, a good amount of British and Israeli imports (again thanks to Homeland), and lots of big film actors and directors coming/returning to TV, including Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Anna Faris, Jacki Weaver, Mandy Moore, Mira Sorvino, Greg Kinnear, Ari Graynor, Jamie Bell, Michael Pena, Emma Roberts, Sam Raimi, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron, Sam Mendes, the Duplass Brothers, Ridley Scott, and Jason Reitman. There are also projects from the Homeland team, Bill Lawrence, Greg Garcia, Lorne Michaels, etc. On the list this year for the first time, I’ve included a series being developed/produced for the web.

Anyway, there’s a lot I’m interested in, more than last year, but not a lot I’m passionate about. To learn more about the pilots I’m keeping my eye on, click on through!

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This is primarily a Game of Thrones appreciation blog. I pretty much reblog everything that it’s like you’ve watched the episode. So this is a warning. Over the next day, it’s gonna be a lot, and I mean a lot of Thrones-related posts. Enjoy if you watch the show, forgive me if you don’t. Just bear with me. Haha!

That is all.

I spent the past couple of weekends screening films playing at the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual mini-festival New Directors/New Films, which showcases work from up-and-coming or debuting directors, or, as one of the presenters called it, directors showing new directions. It’s actually my first time to go to the event, which is a shame as it has been the jumping-off point for many filmmakers I respect and adore - Christopher Nolan and Pedro Almodovar, to name a couple. Just last year, they played films like Oscar nominee Beasts of the Southern Wild. This year, I was drawn to the festival for one reason - Sarah Polley’s well-received first documentary, Stories We Tell. With that screening secure, I decided to take a peek at the other films playing. I saw four in total (should’ve been five but I had to miss one), detailed below, including Polley’s beautiful new film.

Short discussions on Stories We Tell, Shane Caruth’s Upstream Color and 2 others after the break!

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I’m live-tweeting the show over on my Twitter, so follow me there.

Gonna be a fun night!

This is it! The end of the most messed up awards season in recent history. It’s a truly unpredictable year for most categories, and for Best Picture, it isn’t so much unpredictable as it is questionable - will Argo, which has won every single precursor so far, win without a Best Director nomination and be only the fourth to do so? Will Lincoln, leading the pack with 12 nominations, finally break out and win a top prize after winning nothing all season? Will Harvey Weinstein’s prized Silver Linings Playbook snatch a victory? Or will any of the other nominees surprise? I don’t expect to do very well this year because anything can happen - and this statement means more now than any of the past few years. Director, Actress, and Supporting Actor are all up in the air, and so are all the techs. It’s going to be a fun night, especially if the Academy does go their own way. Let’s start things of with the biggest prize of the evening:

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

Will win: Argo. In a year of preferential balloting, which is basically ranking the nominees instead of voting for just one, and everything is collated via rank, Argo will get lots of twos, threes, fours, and a smattering of ones while something like Lincoln will get ones and twos, and eights and nines. Argo is a feel-good movie that also shows Hollywood as the savior. I like the film a lot, I even put it in my Top 25 of the year. It’s also won everything prior to the Oscars. If Affleck was nominated for director, this would be easy, and Argo would be as sure as The Artist, The King’s Speech, The Hurt Locker, and Slumdog Millionaire, but that big looming question mark about Best Director is still there and has a huge chance of taking Argo down.

Could win: Lincoln. Usually, the film with the most nominations goes on to win. It’s not a for-sure statistic, but it has merit. There’s a lot of respect for this film, and from the get go, it was labeled frontrunner despite not actually winning much. The race often compared for this year is the Braveheart-Apollo 13 year where Apollo 13 won every precursor (SAG, PGA, DGA, etc) but missed a Director’s nod at the Oscars, and ultimately lost to Braveheart. Times have changed, and voting has changed, so it’s hard to compare, but otherwise, I’ll go with Spielberg’s historical epic. But keep your eyes on Silver Linings Playbook which has had a late-in-the-season push, and is the first film in 30+ years to have a nominee in all four acting categories - support is strong, and people love it, but it’s SAG loss is telling, and Life of Pi, which could be Ang Lee’s first film to win Best Picture.

Should win: Zero Dark Thirty. Lots of people were appalled by the Affleck snub but I was more disgusted by the Bigelow snub. Stunning work, the best film of the year from a filmmaking aspect in my opinion, and that is thanks to Kathryn Bigelow.

Should’ve been here: The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

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

Will win: Ang Lee. Probably the strangest (and my most anticipated) award of the night will be Director, because this was for-sure Affleck’s if he was here but since he is not… who wins? I had a strong feeling it would be Haneke for a while since if, nay, when Amour wins Foreign Film, it’s an award for the film/country, but not Haneke and this would be a way to reward him. But I’ve slowly changed that towards a 2nd win for Ang Lee, who is well-respected, and has won before for a film that didn’t win Best Pic.

Could win: If Lincoln does suddenly take over on Oscar night, then this will go to Mr. Steven Spielberg himself for sure, though he could just take it even if the film doesn’t do well. 

Should win: Michael Haneke.

Should’ve been here: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty.

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

Will win: Daniel Day-Lewis. He’s won everything before hand, and yes it’s pretty solid that he will take home his third Oscar, but aye there’s the rub - will the Academy really reward DDL his third Oscar so near his last one (for There Will Be Blood)? I think yes, but it’s one to watch out for in an upset (same with Supporting Actress).

Could win: Hugh Jackman, because I don’t know who can really.

Should win: Daniel Day-Lewis, plus what a treat to see 3-time winner Meryl Streep award soon-to-be 3-time winner Day-Lewis?

Should’ve been here: Jack Black, Bernie; Logan Lerman, The Perks of Being a Wallflower; Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained (he was just as much a lead as Jamie Foxx); Tom Holland, The Impossible.

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Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Will win: This is another tough category, just like last year, and it’s been kind of back and forth between Chastain and Lawrence, but the difference is Riva entered the fray when she won the BAFTA, but I’ll stick with the safer choice of Jennifer Lawrence.

Could win: Emmanuelle Riva. I had Riva as the winner since BAFTA, but I changed my mind at the last minute. Riva turns 86 on Oscar night, and what a birthday gift that would be! Don’t count out Chastain or Naomi Watts, who’ve been getting tons of insider support. Lil Q should just be happy to be there.

Should win: Jessica Chastain and Naomi Watts in a tie.

Should’ve been here: Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone; Emily Blunt, Your Sister’s Sister; Elle Fanning, Ginger & Rosa; Keira Knightley; Anna Karenina

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THE REST AFTER THE CUT!

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I’ve done mini-versions of this in prior years, usually just a list within a list of things I liked in a year, but I thought I’d blow it up this year and dedicate a whole blog about it, especially as we near the Oscars. When watching movies, we all have scenes and sequences that stand out for us in more ways than one, whether its the staging, the impact, the acting, or the thrill. There are scenes that are so memorable, so well-done, so good that we never forget them, whether the film as a whole is good or bad, and that’s what makes this list so interesting to me. Even if I disliked a film, there might be a scene in it that I thought was so special.

For example, I didn’t like Prometheus very much, but the alien abortion scene is so brutal to watch that you can never forget it. Though that scene doesn’t make my Top 10 (though it came close), it’s a good starting point, as we begin with number 10. I kept each film to one scene to avoid repeating, so here we go:

After the cut!

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We just had the Oscar nominations yesterday, and we’ve got 6 weeks before the big night. Before that, we’ve got the 70th Annual Golden Globes this Sunday. I don’t think we’ll get a clear view of things since the ballots came in way before nominations for Oscars were revealed. No chance for bandwagons - it’s kind of an all out war right now.

After the surprising and shocking snubs of Affleck and Bigelow over at the Academy, I’m thinking the Globes could most definitely be completely different from the Oscars this year. They frequently are, but this may be one of the most disparate ones. Of the 5 Best Director nominations, only TWO are going to go on to Oscar night, so this means Globes/Oscar may have winners that won’t even contend at the Oscars!

Either way we’ll see what the HFPA loves and doesn’t love on Sunday. And here are my predictions for that night.

Best Motion Picture - Drama

Argo

Django Unchained

Lincoln

Life of Pi

Zero Dark Thirty

Will Win: Argo. The Globes are notorious for favoring celebrities, and what’s better than a celebrity directing a big-time film. And for the most part, Globes and Oscars disagree on this category (of course, only specifically to the Drama category, as Comedy is another story - last year Artist won both GG and Oscar). Argo is not winning Oscar, but it might as well take GG - this is theirs to lose.

Could Win: Lincoln. It’s definitely between this and Argo. I’m giving the slight edge to Argo due to GG’s history, but if Lincoln is as strong as perceived, then maybe Globes and Oscars will finally agree, first time since ‘04.

Should Win: Django Unchained or Zero Dark Thirty. Love both films. Django is an amazing film with my favorite director behind it, and ZDT, for everything it’s worth, is the best film of the year.

Best Comedy/Musical, the acting races, the TV section and more after the cut!

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