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.  

Django Unchained Review

4 Stars

Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained is the story of a slave name Django (Jamie Foxx) who's freedom is bought by Dr. King Schultz (Christopher Waltz).  Schultz trains Django to become a bounty hunter.  Django then uses his skills to confront the brutal Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) to rescue his wife. 

Best known for his uncomfortably brutally funny movies like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and From Dusk Til Dawn, Django Unchained is bound to be another over-the-top gory and violent movie that is smart, well-acted, and so cleverly put together that you find yourself laughing and cringing at the same time and wondering how you could possibly be doing both.  The answer is simple: Quentin Tarantino.

And Django Unchained was exactly that.  Perhaps I'm getting a little old for movies like this, or maybe this movie was just particularly violent, but I really did find it to be uncomfortably violent at times and did find myself cringing in my seat.  I know Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs were violent movies, but I don't recall being this disturbed for this long at what I saw in a movie.  As for the laughing, it was more brief moments of well-timed brevity that were a much welcomed and much needed break from the otherwise non-stop bloodshed. 

That being said, it was still done very well.  It was smart, gritty, gruesome, but a touching albeit unconventional love story.  Jamie Foxx was sharp as the slave with a vengeance Django.  Christopher Waltz was perfect and stole the show for me as the dentist turned bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz.  I even enjoyed Leonardo DiCaprio's performance as the business man Calvin Candie.  Django Unchained gets a solid 4 stars for the original script, the well shot movie, the amazing acting performances, the choice in music accompaniment, and even the brutality which was probably more accurate than most movies dare to show about this era in our history.  Well worth the money, highly recommended, though not 100% sure I will add this to my collection, it's something I could see myself watching again . . . when I can stomach it.  So what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.