Oscars Results

Well, the Oscars Awards Ceremony is over and the trophies have been given.  So how did I do in my predictions?  Below are all the nominees.  My predictions are in Bold and Underlined.  The actual winners are colored red.

BEST PICTURE:

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

BEST DIRECTOR:

• Amour – Michael Haneke
• Beasts of the Southern Wild – Benh Zeitlin
• Life of Pi – Ang Lee
• Lincoln – Stephen Spielberg
• Silver Linings Playbook – David O. Russell

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:

• Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook
• Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
• Hugh Jackman – Les Miserables
• Joaquin Phoenix – The Master
• Denzel Washington – Flight

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:

• Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty
• Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
• Emmanuelle Riva – Amour
• Quvenzhane Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Naomi Watts – The Impossible

 BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:

• Alan Arkin – Argo
• Robert DeNiro – Silver Linings Playbook
• Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master
• Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln
• Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:

• Amy Adams – The Master
• Sally Field – Lincoln
• Anne Hathaway – Les Miserables
• Helen Hunt – The Sessions
• Jacki Weaver – Silver Linings Playbook

WRITING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

• Amour
• Django Unchained
• Flight
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Zero Dark Thirty

WRITING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

• Argo
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Silver Linings Playbook

Not too bad, six out of eight correct.  As my friends will attest, though I believed Lincoln to deserve Best Picture and Director awards, I told them not to count Argo out of the race, especially after taking home first place at nearly every other awards ceremony that exists for motion pictures.  Many have felt that Director Ben Affleck was actually snubbed by the Academy for not being nominated for Best Director.  That could be one of the downfalls of expanding the Best Picture category to nine nominees and keeping the Director category at only five. In fact, over the last 25 years, only 5 times has the Best Picture not guaranteed the Best Director awards.  2013 marks the 6th historic time this has occurred, and it certainly won't be the last.  

Life of Pi Review

4.5 Stars

Based on the best selling novel by Yann Martel, Academy Award Winning Director Ang Lee brings the story Life of Pi to the big screen. Pi is the son of an Indian Zoo Keeper who's family has decided to take their trade to Canada and has hitched a ride on a Pacific tanker ship to do so.  Tragedy strikes when the ship goes down leaving the 16 year old Pi to fend for his life adrift in the ocean with his fellow survivors: a Bengal tiger, a hyena, an orangutan, and a zebra.

Ang Lee is best known for his works directing such films as Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  Lee has enlisted unknown actor Suraj Sharma to play the principal role of Pi.  Quite the opportunity for a young actor's first role.  And he nailed the role, and Ang Lee nailed this film. Every shot of film in this movie could be clipped from the reel and blown up to a poster sized print and sold as art is was that beautiful, that breath-taking.  And that's exactly what the preview leads you to believe it will be.  However, unless you read the book, you wouldn't know from the preview that this isn't just a survivor story; but it's also a story of identity, discovery and doubt.  Young Pi is a smart and inquisitive boy, qualities that both get him into trouble, and ultimately save his life.  Some of the biggest questions he has are about religion.  Instead of rejecting anything, Pi seems to find the best of every religion to which he is introduced and ultimately becomes a devout Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim.  While his family is looking to start a new life in Canada, a tragic shipwreck and an unfortunately crew of co-survivors, Pi finds himself looking to not only survive with his castaway crew, but also survive from his castaway crew.  As if that wasn't enough to worry about every day, he was also looking for answers to his questions about God.

Along the lines of other best-selling spiritually reflective books like The Shack, Tuesdays with Maurie and The Alchemist, Life of Pi is a beautiful albeit familiar story, but it's told in such a beautiful way through the artful direction of Ang Lee.  This was a solid movie that completely accomplished what it set out to do and was quite accurately portrayed in its preview.  4.5 stars and I can't wait to see this again, and most likely add to my home collection.  So what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Life of Pi Preview

Based on the best selling novel by Yann Martel, Academy Award Winning Director Ang Lee brings the story Life of Pi to the big screen. Pi is the son of an Indian Zoo Keeper who's family has decided to take their trade to Canada and has hitched a ride on a Pacific tanker ship to do so.  Tragedy strikes when the ship goes down leaving the 16 year old Pi to fend for his life adrift in the ocean with his fellow survivors: a Bengal tiger, a hyena, an orangutan, and a zebra.

Ang Lee is best known for his works directing such films as Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  Lee has enlisted unknown actor Suraj Sharma to play the principal role of Pi.  Quite the opportunity for a young actor's first role.  And that's really about all we have to go on from the preview as well.  A no-name actor with no lines in the trailer makes it a little difficult to make any kind of prediction as to what this movie will actually be like.  The two minute preview, however, has enough gorgeous cinematic picturesque moments to fill a two-hour movie.  That alone makes me curious and I'm looking forward to seeing this film by Lee.  I am predicting a touching, reflective and introspective movie that is visually stunning.  As for the story, it seems it will be along the lines of Tom Hanks in Castaway where is mostly about survival and what it takes to stay alive and sane.  It will be interesting to see how well the story can keep me captivated and if it lives up to the beautifully painted scenes from the preview.  I'm willing to take a leap of faith and say this will earn a solid 4 stars, maybe even 4.5.  Am I right?  We shall see.