Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Critica de cine: Soñadoras (Dreamgirls)


Los últimos tres intentos por parte de Hollywood en adaptar un musical de Broadway se han convertido en fracasos. A finales del 2004 se estrenó El Fantasma de la opera (The Phantom of the Opera), y a pesar de que sigue siendo una de los musicales más populares, recaudó una cantidad muy pobre en la taquilla estadounidense ($51 millones de dólares) y recibió malas criticas en su mayoría. En el 2005 se estrenaron por partida doble los musicales Rent y Los productores (The Producers). La situación no cambio en lo absoluto. Las dos fueron vapuleadas por la critica y sus ingresos en la taquilla americana fueron de nuevo bajísimos ($30 millones para la primera y $19 millones para la segunda).

Así es que bajo este panorama llega a la pantalla grande el musical Soñadoras (Dreamgirls). Adaptada de una obra de Broadway de los años 80, esta cinta es dirigida por Bill Condon, quien hace unos años escribio el guión de Chicago. El filme narra la historia de tres mujeres (Deena Jones, Effie White, y Lorrell Robinson) que desean convertirse en cantantes de pop. Su gran oportunidad les llega cuando son elegidas como coristas del famoso cantante de soul James "Thunder" Early. Es a partir de ahí que estas tres mujeres empiezan a vivir en carne propia lo que es ser cantante en el difícil mundo de la música, donde los celos, las envidias, las rivalidades, y los romances están a las ordenes del día.

El elenco de la película esta compuesto mayoritariamente por actores afroamericanos. La famosa cantante Beyoncé Knowles tiene a su cargo el papel de Deena, la líder del grupo, Eddie Murphy interpreta al músico James "Thunder" Early, el actor y cantante Jaime Foxx interpreta a Curtis Taylor, Jr. y la debutante Jennifer Hudson, quien se roba la película con su interpretación de Effie White. La cinta retrata la época de la música Motown, en la cual empezaron a aparecer varios artistas afroamericanos de pop, tal como el grupo The Supremes y el músico de soul James Brown. De hecho se dice que el trío de cantantes de la cinta, The Dreamettes, está inspirado en el grupo de Diana Ross.

Esta es una cinta que brilla más por los números musicales, el diseño de producción, el vestuario y la música que por las actuaciones o la historia en sí.

Todos los actores interpretan de maravilla sus canciones, realmente les ves la emoción en las caras de que están sintiendo todo lo que están cantando. En este sentido Jennifer Hudson es toda una revelación. Tiene una voz maravillosa y una presencia escénica impactante. Ella se roba la película y lo más seguro es que gane el Oscar a la Mejor Actriz Secundaria a finales de febrero.

Uno de los puntos negativos de la película es que el director llega a abusar un poco de los números musicales hasta el punto en el que parece que estamos viendo un video-clip de dos horas. Es por eso que casi no hay diálogos hablados y cuando los hay la película baja de ritmo y los personajes se vuelven menos interesantes. En sí nunca llegamos a conocer muy bien quienes son ya que el director esta más interesado en ponerlos a cantar en un escenario que en contarnos un poco más acerca de ellos. La historia también abandona a varios de los personajes: en un momento de la cinta Effie White sale de la historia y vuelve a entrar unos 30 minutos después! En resumidas cuentas, me hubiera gustado ver un poco menos de números musicales y un poco más de complejidad y desarrollo en los personajes.

Pero a pesar de todo esto, la película es un agasajo visual, es muy entretenida y la música es de verdad excelente.

Soñadoras cuenta con ocho nominaciones a los Oscares y es sumamente recomendable para todos aquellos que les gusten los musicales y que quieran pasar un buen rato en el cine.

Calificación: 8/10

Sunday, January 28, 2007

SAG Awards Winners!


The SAG Awards were really predictable and everything went as planned. Helen Mirren, Forest Whitaker, and Jennifer Hudson are locks to win the Oscar in their respective categories. The big doubt remains if Eddie Murphy will win for Best Supporting Actor. I'm thinking he will. As far as the win for the cast of Little Miss Sunshine I really don't know what to think of it. Is it an omen that it will win Best Picture? Just like Crash a year ago? or Is it another Sideways or Gosford Park? I think the latter. Little Miss Sunshine is the kind of ensemble that the SAG's like to award.

Oh and I did wonderful with my film predictions: 5/5 .... woohoo!

The winners in full:

FILM

Best Ensemble
Little Miss Sunshine

Best Actress
Helen Mirren, The Queen

Best Actor
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Best Supporting Actor
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls

TELEVISION

Best Actress Mini Series
Helen Mirren wins for Elizabeth I

Best Male Actor Mini Series
Jeremy Irons, Elizabeth I

Best Actor, Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock

Best Actress, Comedy Series
American Ferrera, Ugly Betty

Best Comedy ensemble
The Office

Best Actress, Drama Series
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy

Best Actor, Drama Series
Hugh Laurie, House

Best Ensemble Drama Series
Grey's Anatomy

Saturday, January 27, 2007

SAG Awards Predictions

The Screen Actors Guild Awards will be handed out tomorrow and here are my predictions:

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Forest Whitaker -THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
(I'm thinking Peter O'Toole could take this as well)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Helen Mirren - THE QUEEN

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Eddie Murphy - DREAMGIRLS
(This is the toughest category to predict this year. The winner could also easily be Leo DiCaprio or Alan Arkin)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Jennifer Hudson - DREAMGIRLS

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
(Again, tough one. Babel could also win this one)

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Oscar nomination comments: Viva Mexico!!


1. It was another historic day for us Mexicans! It was absolutely THRILLING to see many Mexicans, 10 to be exact, up for awards this year. A record breaker indeed. Also it was the first time that a Mexican was nominated in the Best Director category. It really was about time that the Academy started to recognize the amazing talent we have in this country. I couldn't be happier for Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, Guillermo Arriaga, Adriana Barraza, and Emmanuel Lubezki. Just awesome!

2. And speaking of records, the great Meryl Streep received her 14th Oscar nomination, making her the most nominated thespian in Oscar history. I would love to see her win for her performance in The Devil Wears Prada but sadly that is not going to happen, since the unstoppable Helen Mirren is going to be the winner.

3. Speaking of The Devil Wears Prada , I really wanted Emily Blunt to get a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her brilliant comedic performance. But oh well, I can live with it. On the other hand, I was so happy that Patricia Field was nominated for Best Costume Design. It's been like 10 years since the Academy recognized contemporary costumes. And what costumes! They were integral to the film and besides, they were just lovely.

4. On a sad note, Volver was horribly snubbed from the Best Foreign Language Film category. I still can't understand why it wasn't nominated. The Academy loves Pedro Almodóvar. Maybe this category was too crowded? I haven't seen the other 3 nominees but Volver really deserved to the there. However, the snub I am happy about is that of Jack Nicholson for The Departed. I didn't like his performance at all, thought it was over the top, and really distracting. Nice to see the Academy nominated someone else.

5. And well of course the big shocker was that Dreamgirls wasn't nominated for Best Picture and that Paul Greengrass got a nominations for Best Director for United 93.

So now the fun begins! It will be an intense month of movie watching. I still have to see a bunch of the nominated films like Blood Diamond, Dreamgirls, Letters from Iwo Jima, Notes on a Scandal, The Queen, etc.

Expect reviews of those Oscar nominated films when I get around to seeing them.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Oscar Nominations


The Oscar nominations were announced very early today. Here are all the nominees:

BEST PICTURE

Babel
The Departed
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

BEST DIRECTOR
Clint Eastwood - Letters from Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears - The Queen
Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu - Babel
Paul Greengrass - United 93
Martin Scorsese - The Departed

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling - Half Nelson
Peter O’Toole - Venus
Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Penelope Cruz - Volver
Judi Dench – Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren – The Queen
Meryl Streep – The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet – Little Children

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Alan Arkin – Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley – Little Children
Djimon Hounsou – Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy – Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg – The Departed

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Adriana Barraza – Babel
Cate Blanchett – Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin – Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi – Babel

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Babel - Guillermo Arriaga
Letters from Iwo Jima - Iris Yamashita & Paul Haggis
Little Miss Sunshine - Michael Arndt
Pan’s Labyrinth - Guillermo del Toro
The Queen - Peter Morgan

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Borat - Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer
Children of Men - Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby
The Departed - William Monahan
Little Children - Todd Field & Tom Perrotta
Notes on a Scandal - Patrick Marber

ANIMATED FEATURE

Cars - John Lasseter
Happy Feet - George Miller
Monster House - Gil Kenan

BEST ART DIRECTION

Dreamgirls - John Myhre & Nancy Haigh
The Good Shepherd - Jeannine Oppewall, Gretchen Rau & Leslie E. Rollins
Pan’s Labyrinth - Eugenio Caballero & Pilar Revuelta
Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest - Rick Heinrichs & Cheryl A. Carasik
The Prestige - Nathan Crowley & Julie Ochipinti

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Curse of the Golden Flower -Yee Chung Man
The Devil Wears Prada - Patricia Field
Dreamgirls - Sharen Davis
Marie Antoinette - Milena Canonero
The Queen - Consolata Boyle

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Black Dahlia - Vilmos Zsigmond
Children of Men - Emmanuel Lubezki
The Illusionist - Dick Pope
Pan’s Labyrinth - Guillermo Navarro
The Prestige - Wally Pfister

BEST FILM EDITING
Babel - Stephen Mirrione & Douglas Crise
Blood Diamond - Steven Rosenblum
Children of Men - Alex Rodríguez & Alfonso Cuarón
The Departed - Thelma Schoonmaker
United 93 - Clare Douglas, Christopher Rouse & Richard Pearson

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
After the Wedding - Denmark
Days of Glory - Algeria
The Lives of Others - Germany
Pan’s Labyrinth - Mexico
Water - Canada

BEST MAKEUP

Apocalypto - Aldo Signoretti & Vittorio Sodano
Click - Kazuhiro Tsuji & Bill Corso
Pan’s Labyrinth - David Marti & Montse Ribe

BEST SOUND MIXING
Apocalypto - Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell & Fernando Camara
Blood Diamond - Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer & Ivan Sharrock
Dreamgirls - Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer & Willie Burton
Flags of Our Fathers - John Reitz, Dave Campbell, Gregg Rudloff & Walt Martin
Pirates of the Carribean: Deam Man’s Chest - Paul Massey, Christopher Boyes & Lee Orloff

BEST SOUND EDITING
Apocalypto - Sean McCormack & Kami Asgar
Blood Diamond - Lon Bender
Flags of Our Fathers - Alan Robert Murray & Bub Asman
Letters From Iwo Jima - Alan Robert Murray
Pirates of the Carribean - Christopher Boyes & George Watters II

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Babel - Gustavo Santaolalla
The Good German - Thomas Newman
Notes on a Scandal - Philip Glass
Pan’s Labyrinth - Javier Navarrete
The Queen - Alexandre Desplat

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Our Town” - Cars
“Listen” – Dreamgirls
“Love You I Do” – Dreamgirls
“Patience” – Dreamgirls
“I Need to Wake Up” – An Inconvenient Truth

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest - John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson & Allen Hall
Poseidon - Boyd Shermis, Kim Libreri, Chaz Jarrett & John Frazier
Superman Returns - Mark Stetson, Neil Corbould, Richard R. Hoover & Jon Thum

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Deliver Us From Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq in Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Golden Globes wrap up


Here are some thoughts just to wrap up the Golden Globes:

1. I’m really happy for Alejandro González Iñárritu. Even though I did have some quibbles with Babel, ultimately his win made me feel really proud of what we Mexicans can achieve and the talent we have in our country. His win was historic because he became the first Mexican director to ever win a Golden Globe award. If only our government took notice of this and decided to give more support to our film industry and the new emerging talents.

2. And speaking of Mexicans, the whole crew of Ugly Betty (which included Salma Hayek) really looked surprised and shocked. I was happy for them, even though I’ve never seen the show. Besides, America Ferrara gave one of the most emotional speeches of the night.

3. Meryl Streep is a class act. You probably already know that, but I never get tired of saying that she has to be the most ego-less and humble actress in Hollywood despite her reputation as the “best living actress”. And she’s great at writing speeches too. The way she read the names of several independent films (The Queen, Notes on a Scandal, etc) and demanded for them to be shown in more theatres was really classy. She also acknowledged the other nominated actresses and thanked everybody who worked on the film. The best part of the speech, however, was when she ended it with “That’s all”, her character’s catch phrase.



4. It was a British invasion that night. Helen Mirren, Jeremy Irons, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighty, Peter Morgan, and Emily Blunt all won Golden Globes in their respective categories. It was really nice to see all of them recognized, especially Blunt, who can become one hell of an actress and the next big thing if she choses the right roles. So far she’s on the right track.

5. Grey’s Anatomy better than 24!? Give me a break. Season 5 was the best of them all. Oh well, at least 24 won the Emmy last year.

6. I really really wanted Pan’s Labyrinth to win the Best Foreign Film category. Guillermo del Toro deserved that award so much. I still haven’t seen Letters from Iwo Jima but Eastwood is one of my favorite directors so all is good.

Finally, how did I do with my predictions? …. Since I only predicted the film categories I got a score of 11/14. I missed the two music categories: Best Original Score and Best Song because I normally suck at predicting these categories. I also missed Best Foreign Film because I wanted Pan’s Labyrinth to win so badly.

So that was that, on to Oscar nominations on Tuesday!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Golden Globe Winners!


Best Motion Picture - Drama:
Babel

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama:
Helen Mirren, The Queen

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama:
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy:
Dreamgirls

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy:
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy:
Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls

Best Animated Feature Film:
Cars

Best Foreign Languge Film:
Letters From Iwo Jima (Japan, United States)

Best Director - Motion Picture:
Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture:
Peter Morgan, The Queen

Best Original Score - Motion Picture:
The Painted Veil, Composed by Alexandre Desplat

Best Original Song - Motion Picture:
"The Song Of The Heart" – Happy Feet
Music & Lyrics By: Prince Rogers Nelson

Best Television Series - Drama:
Grey's Anatomy

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Drama:
Kyra Sedgwick – The Closer

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama:
Hugh Laurie, House

Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy:
Ugly Betty

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy:
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy:
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television:
Elizabeth I

Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television:
Helen Mirren, Elizabeth I

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:
Bill Nighy, Gideon's Daughter

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:
Emily Blunt, Gideon's Daughter

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:
Jeremy Irons, Elizabeth I

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Golden Globe Predictions!

The Golden Globes will be handed out tomorrow. Here are my predictions...

Best Motion Picture - Drama
Babel
(I'm not very sure on this one. The winner could easily be The Departed too. It could go either way.)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Helen Mirren, The Queen

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
Forest Whitaker, The Last King Of Scotland
(Again not sure. I think Leo will split his votes and Peter O' Toole could win this one as well.)

Best Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy
Dreamgirls
(Nothing would make me happier than to see The Devil Wears Prada win here but that's probably not going to happen.)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy
Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls

Best Animated Feature Film
Cars

Best Foreign Languge Film
Pan's Labyrinth, México

Best Director - Motion Picture
Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
Peter Morga, The Queen
(I'm starting to think that Guillermo Arriaga could take this one as well.)

Best Original Score - Motion Picture
Babel, Gustavo Santaolalla

Best Original Song - Motion Picture
"Listen", Dreamgirls
(I'm terrible at predicting musical categories.)

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

DGA Nominations

So as award season continues the Director's Guild of America have nominated what they consider to be the five Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2006:

Bill Condon, Dreamgirls
Jonathan Dayton Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed

All right, so the biggest surprise, if you can call it that, was the nominations for the two directors of Little Miss Sunshine ... and speaking of this movie; I just don't get where all this award love if coming from. Is it a good movie? Yes. Did I enjoy/like it? Yes I sure did. But I mean, really, it was nothing that remarkable and certainly it wasn't one of the five best directed films of the year. Did the DGA even think of Pan's Labyrinth, Volver or Children of Men? Those would have been better nominations, IMO.

As far as the other nominees goes I am thrilled for Gonzaléz Iñarritu and happy that my fellow mexican filmmakers are getting recognition for their work.

I am with those that think this is probably going to be the Best Picture lineup for the Oscars, although I do think Clint Eastwood will be able to sneak into the Best Director category, replacing the 'Sunshine' directors.

And as far as the winner goes, this is Marty's all the way. There is no way he's going to lose this one and there is no way he is going to lose the Oscar.

Monday, January 8, 2007

52 Films in 52 Weeks: 2007

So as part of the new year I've decided to make a list of all the films I want to see during 2007. There are 52 movies on the list, therefore I would watch one per week. Don't know if I will be able to see all 52 but I'll give it a try nonetheless. I will write reviews of the movies after I've seen them and post them here on my blog.

1. The 400 Blows
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. The Accused
4. All About Eve
5. Ali
6. Almost Famous
7. Being John Malkovich
8. Blade Runner
9. Blue Velvet
10. Boys Don’t Cry
11. Breaking the Waves
12. The Bridges of Madison County
13. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
14. Casino
15. Cinema Paradiso
16. Chinatown
17. Cries and Whispers
18. A Cry in the Dark
19. Dead Poets Society
20. The Deer Hunter
21. Dirty Harry
22. Edward Scissorhands
23. Fargo
24. Gods and Monsters
25. Goodfellas
26. The Graduate
27. The Grifters
28. Howard’s End
29. The Hustler
30. In America
31. It’s a Wonderful Life
32. In the Name of the Father
33. Interiors
34. To Kill a Mockingbird
35. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
36. Once Upon a Time in America
37. Once Upon a Time in the West
38. Paris, Texas
39. Persona
40. Psycho
41. Taxi Driver
42. Tootsie
43. The Remains of the Day
44. Rocky
45. Scarface
46. Schindler’s List
47. The Silence of the Lambs
48. Silkwood
49. Sophie’s Choice
50. Sunset Boulevard
51. Unfaithful
52. The Veredict

I watched Sophie's Choice already this week and I will write a review of it later on.

So one down and 51 to go!