Oscar Nominated Short Films – Animated

Let's look at the films nominated for Best Animated Short:

Day and Night (USA – 6 minutes)

I was surprised that I had already seen this film. It's a Pixar short and I believe played before Toy Story 3. Day and Night meet and are initially wary of each other but soon learn to appreciate their differences.

The Gruffalo (UK – 27 minutes)

This film is based on a children's book. A mouse is walking through the woods looking for a nut and must use his wits to escape the hungry predators he encounters along the way.

Let's Pollute (USA – 6 minutes)

A satire of the 1950s educational films, this films instructs us on how to be better polluters.

The Lost Thing (Austrailia/UK – 15 minutes)

A boy finds a bizarre looking creature on the beach. After he realizes it's lost, he sets out to find out where it belongs.

Madagasgar, Carnet de Voyage (France – 11 minutes)

A travel journey about a vacation in Madagasgar.

Day and Night was a fun short that appeals to both adults and children. The Gruffalo was a fun fable that I can see my boys loving and wanting to watch over and over. Let's Pollute was hilarious – it was my personal favorite. I felt like The Lost Thing had a message about belonging or something that I wasn't quite grasping. Travis (who works with animation) said there was no message, that the filmmakers had probably created the cool looking creature and then crafted a weak story around it just to showcase the creature. Madagasgar was the most visually interesting but even with the subtitles I had trouble understanding what was going on in it.

This is a tough one to predict. I'm kind of thinking that Day and Night will win just because it's a Pixar production and they tend to win in the feature length best animation category. But Hollywood is full of environmentalists who would love the humor in Let's Pollute. I'll go with Let's Pollute as my predicted winner in this category.

Oscar Nominated Short Films – Live Action

Saturday Travis and I went to a screening of all of the live action and animated short films nominated for Academy Awards this year. Let's take a look at the live action short films today:

The Confession (UK – 26 minutes)

Nine year old Sam is making his first confession soon. The problem is he's a good little boy and doesn't have anything to confess. His friend Jacob decides to help him out by planning a prank that Sam can confess to pulling with him. Unfortunately the innocent prank turns horribly tragic.

The Crush (Ireland – 15 minutes)

Eight year old Ardel is in love with his classroom teacher Miss Purdy and is very disappointed when he discovers she has a boyfriend. Ardel is determined to show his teacher that HE is the one for her.

God of Love (USA – 18 minutes)

Dart-throwing lounge singer Raymond Goodfellow has a hopeless crush on Kelly, the drummer in his band. To make things worse, Kelly has a hopeless crush on Raymond's best friend Fozzie. Raymond thinks his prayers are answered when one day he receives a mysterious package of love darts in the mail.

Na Wewe (Belgium/Burundi – 19 minutes)

It's 1994 and a civil war is raging in the African country of Burundi. A gang of Hutu rebels stops a minibus and trys to sort out who is Hutu and will survive and who is a Tutsi and will be killed.

Wish 143 (UK – 24 minutes)

A 16 year old with terminal cancer is granted one wish from the Dreamscape Charity. He surprises them by wishing to lose his virginity.

These were all wonderful films. The Confession was unpredictable, dark and the little boy who played Sam is a terrific actor. The Crush was my personal favorite of the live action shorts. It was the perfect mix of humor and drama with a suspenseful ending that had me on the edge of my seat. God of Love reminded me of a Woody Allen movie (in a good way) with it's neurotic, dorky main character. Na Wewe was disturbing and hard to watch but had a powerful message. Wish 143 started out silly and then took an unexpected sentimental turn towards the end.

Because it was the film with the most powerful message, I predict that Na Wewe will win the Oscar.

Book Review: My Name Is Memory

My Name Is Memory by Ann Brashares
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Daniel is one of the rare people in the world who has "the memory". In other words, he remembers all his past lives and can recognize the souls of people he knew in those lives. He's spent life after life looking for Sophia, a girl he fell in love with in his first life. Some times he finds her, some times he doesn't. Somehow in all his many lives, circumstances have never worked out for Daniel and Sophia to be together without tragedy.

The story alternates between Daniel's past lives and his present day life where he has found Sophia and enrolled in the same high school as her. But how does he convince her that he's not crazy and that they have a long history together? It's a beautiful love story and towards the last half also very suspenseful and action packed. I was so absorbed I finished it in two days. I couldn't stop thinking about Daniel and his unique condition. I think this would make a great book club selection.

HOWEVER, the ending was terrible! It was very abrupt and jarring – like the author just decided to stop writing. I've seen many places on the Internet that indicate there will be a sequel and other places that state this is the first book in a trilogy but I wasn't able to find anywhere where the author or publisher confirmed this. (If you have please let me know!) So my five-star review is contingent on there being a sequel. If there isn't, then I would downgrade to four stars, maybe lower.

*Buy this book at:

Amazon
Powell's Books

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January Reading Challenge Update

I'm keeping good on my plan to do a monthly update post to track where I'm at on my challenges. Here's where I am one month into 2011.

I'm signed up to read five books in the 2011 South Asian Challenge:

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5.

I'm signed up for six audio books in the 2011 Audio Book Challenge:

1. Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
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6.

I signed up for six e-books in the 2011 E-Book Challenge: 

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The categories in the What's In A Name 4 challenge are:

1. A book with a number in the title – Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
2. A book with jewelry or a gem in the title
3. A book with a size in the title
4. A book with travel or movement in the title – The Art of Racing In The Rain by Garth Stein
5. A book with evil in the title
6. A book with a life stage in the title

I signed up for three books in the 2011 2nds Challenge which challenges readers to read a second book by an author you've read before:

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3.

 Bart's Bookshelf is hosting the TwentyEleven Challenge. I need to read two books in nine of the categories and one book in two of the categories:

1. To YA or not YA… (I think I read mostly adult fiction so I'll read YA for this category.)
   
2. …With a Twist. (Read a sub-genre you don't normally read. This will be hard because I read almost everything!)
   
3. Hot off the Presses. (Read a book published in 2011.)
4. It Wasn’t Me! (Read a book you've chosen based on a blogger's recommendation.
5. Show it Who is Boss! (Read a book from your TBR pile as of 12/31/10.)
   Lover Awakened by JR Ward and Lover Revealed by JR Ward (reviews coming soon)
6. Bablefish. (Read a translated book.)
   
7. Will-Power? What Will-Power? (Read a book you bought in 2011.)
   
8. Mind the Gap. (Read a book you need finish a series.)
   
9. Back in the Day. (Re-read a favorite book.)
   
10. Way Back When. (Read a book published before you were born.)
    
11. Slim-Pickings (Read a book between 90-150 pages.)

There are ten books in The Vampire Chronicles Reading Challenge hosted by Book Chick City:

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Book Review: The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Enzo is a highly evolved dog who dearly loves his owner Denny. On the eve of his death, Enzo recalls his life with Denny which started when Denny was single. Enzo saw Denny through getting married, the birth of his daughter Zoe and great tragedy and adversity throughout their time together.

The Art of Racing In the Rain was my book club, Conversati-om’s, January pick. I was a bit apprehensive about it because 1)I am ambivalent toward dogs 2)I do not like car racing. I think it’s a true testament to the power of this book’s story that I loved it anyway. The racing parts were brief and mostly used as metaphors so I was not bothered by them. And I kept forgetting Enzo was a dog, he was so insightful as a narrator. On the brief occasions that he did do something dog-like, it caught me off guard. I thought the author did a great job of explaining the rational behind Enzo’s actions when he did do something that I wouldn’t think a highly evolved dog would do – like tearing up Zoe’s stuffed animals.

I was totally caught up in Denny’s journey throughout this book. I don’t want to give to much away but my stomach was in knots for him at times. This the first book by Garth Stein that I’ve read – I’m looking forward to reading more.

Buy this book at:
Amazon

Book Review: Hungry for Happiness

Hungry for Happiness by James Villas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hungry for Happiness is the story of Loretta Crawford, a 36-year old woman who's husband leaves her for another, thinner woman. Loretta decides to change her life and starts by having lap band surgery. Before her surgery she weighed 280 pounds (and was only 5'4"). Even though Loretta is losing weight, she still loves to cook and word gets around that she's one of the best cooks around. Soon she has her own catering business. Also, as she loses more and more weight, she catches the eye of more and more men.

I noticed some reviewers didn't like Loretta's Texas dialect and thought it was over the top. I'm not Texan so I can't say for sure if it was realistic but even if it wasn't I thought it was charming and funny.

I think the overall message of this book was that there are no simple solutions to life's problems. Loretta thinks that weight loss surgery and losing weight will automatically make her happy but she doesn't realize that she has underlying issues that caused her to gain the weight in the first place. However, I don't feel like Loretta ever really understood that and I would have expected her to eventually have some sort of revelation. This book started out with a bang and ended with kind of a whimper.

Some of Loretta's recipes are in the back of the book. A couple I probably won't try because they are just too over the top fattening. For instance, the bread crumbs in her meatloaf are soaked in heavy cream! Her chili recipe looks really good but I'll have to wait until Snowpocalypse is over before I can get to the store to buy the ingredients. I'll be sure and post about it after I make it.

Thank you to the publisher and the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program for providing me with a copy of this book.

View all my reviews

Oscar Nominations Continued

Here are the nominations for the categories I didn't cover yesterday:

Best Animated Feature Film

“How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
“The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet
“Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich

Best Art Direction

“Alice in Wonderland”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
“Inception”
“The King's Speech”
“True Grit”

I don't think I'll watch the Harry Potter movie since I haven't seen any of the other Harry Potter movies. I'm waiting until I read the books and who knows when that will be!

Best Cinematography

“Black Swan” Matthew Libatique
“Inception” Wally Pfister
“The King's Speech” Danny Cohen
“The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth
“True Grit” Roger Deakins

Best Costume Design

“Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood
“I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi
“The King's Speech” Jenny Beavan
“The Tempest” Sandy Powell
“True Grit” Mary Zophres

Best Documentary Feature

“Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz
“Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
“Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
“Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
“Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley

Best Documentary Short

“Killing in the Name” Nominees to be determined
“Poster Girl” Nominees to be determined
“Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
“Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
“The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

The Tivoli has a nominated short film showcase every year that I hope to attend this year. I believe it has the films from all three short film categories (documentary, live action and animated).

Best Film Editing

“Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum
“The Fighter” Pamela Martin
“The King's Speech” Tariq Anwar
“127 Hours” Jon Harris
“The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Best Foreign Language Film

“Biutiful” Mexico
“Dogtooth” Greece
“In a Better World” Denmark
“Incendies” Canada
“Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria

Best Makeup

“Barney's Version” Adrien Morot
“The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
“The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Best Original Score

“How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell
“Inception” Hans Zimmer
“The King's Speech” Alexandre Desplat
“127 Hours” A.R. Rahman
“The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Best Original Song

“Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
“If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Best Animated Short Film

“Day & Night” Teddy Newton
“The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
“Let's Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe
“The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
“Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois

Best Live Action Short Film

“The Confession” Tanel Toom
“The Crush” Michael Creagh
“God of Love” Luke Matheny
“Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt
“Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Best Sound Editing

“Inception” Richard King
“Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
“Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
“True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
“Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger

Not even an Oscar nomination will convince me to watch Tron. Not gonna do it.

Best Sound Mixing

“Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
“The King's Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
“Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
“The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
“True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Best Visual Effects

“Alice in Wonderland”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
“Hereafter”
“Inception”
“Iron Man 2”

Best Adapted Screenplay

“127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
“The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
“Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
“True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

I wonder why Toy Story 3 is in the adapted screenplay category.

Best Original Screenplay

“Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh
“The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson;
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
“Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan
“The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
“The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler

83rd Academy Award Nominations

Oscar nominations are out! I can't believe how many of the movies I've already seen – I've never been this ahead of the game when the nominations came out before. The bolded line are the movies I've seen. I'm going to feature the six major categories today and I'll post the rest tomorrow.

Best Actor In A Leading Role

Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”
James Franco in “127 Hours”

Best Actor In A Supporting Role

Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”
Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush in “The King's Speech”

I'm glad Jeremy Renner was nominated only because I didn't think The Town was that good and now I don't feel like I watched it for nothing. There's no way he will win.

Best Actress In A Leading Role

Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Best Actress In A Supporting Role

Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

Best Directing

“Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
“The Fighter” David O. Russell
“The King's Speech” Tom Hooper
“The Social Network” David Fincher
“True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

 Best Picture

“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“The King's Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3”
“True Grit”
“Winter's Bone"

Only three more to see! I'm seeing 127 Hours on Saturday (I hope I don't faint!) and I have Winter's Bone here from Netflix waiting for me.

Book Review: Size 12 Is Not Fat

Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Size 12 Is Not Fat is the first book in the Heather Wells mystery series. Heather Wells is a former teen popstar. Her record label fired her when she decided she wanted to write her own songs and her mother ran off with her manager and her money. She's started a new job as the assistant director of a residence hall at New York College and plans to go back to school as well. When two girls who live in the residence hall are killed, the police chalk it up to elevator surfing accidents. Heather suspects foul play and since no one will listen, she takes it upon herself to investigate.

Luckily, I've already read the third book in this series so I know it gets better than this first book. Heather is a sweet, charming character but the mystery storyline in this book is pretty ridiculous. There's no way that police would not do more of an investigation on why/how these girls died. Even Heather's private investigator landlord refuses to acknowledge that foul play may have been involved – I don't think so.

I listened to the audio version of this book. The narrator did a good job and it was fun to listen to. However, every time Heather thinks or says "dorm" she corrects herself and says, "I mean, residence hall." That got REALLY grating after a while. That's not the narrator's fault of course but I wonder if it would have been as annoying in print. And who cares whether you call it a dorm or residence hall?

If you read this book and are not impressed, I recommend sticking with the series anyway – it'll get better!

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Book Review: The Bake Sale Murder

Bake Sale Murder by Leslie Meier
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Bake Sale Murder is a cozy mystery that is the 13th book in the Lucy Stone Mystery series. I didn't have any trouble jumping right in without having read any of the previous books in the series.

Lucy Stone is a reporter for the Pennysaver in her small town, Tinker's Cove, Maine. One morning she discovers her neighbor Mimi stabbed to death in her kitchen. At the same time, Lucy is investigating allegations of hazing against the high school football coach that are being made in anonymous letters sent to the Pennysaver office.

This book was mildly entertaining but did not have the "can't put down til I find out who did it" factor that I feel mysteries should have. The characters were superficial and the writing perfunctory. Everything came together too quickly at the end with a lot of dragging through the middle.

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