Have you seen our Best Picture winner?

Tonight was the Genie Awards ceremony, which is Canada's equivalent of the Oscars.

I thought I would give a quick little shout out to Polytechnique, which dominated with a massive 9 wins including Best Picture, Director, Actress, Screenplay and Cinematography.

Polytechnique was the best Canadian film of 2009 by far. At a tiny 77-minutes, it gave a harrowing look at the 1989 Montreal massacre. I saw the film when it played back in June and it has stuck with me ever since.

Told in a similar style to Gus Van Sant's Elephant, this film beared much more weight because it was actually based on true events. The character's are doomed and its very upsetting to see these lives cut short.

Polytechnique didn't really get the release it should have. Yes, in Canada, we don't typically display many of our own films in theatres, but this captures an important and tragic moment in our history. It is a brilliant piece of work to be admired, not necessarily enjoyed.



I encourage you to see this if you haven't already.
Have a good night,
-Brian.

Foxy Criterion. Foxy.

Today was a tad stressful....

Anyways... after checking about 40 emails, I got to my newsletter for the Criterion collection that had this amazing teaser:

Take from it what you will, but to me that says that Lars Von Trier`s Antichrist is getting the royal treatment. If it`s a late November release, it will sure to be a Christmas present for some.

Whoop.

Thanks for making my day.

Thanks Twitter! (and Maple Pictures!)

So after my whole big hate on Twitter way back before I signed up for Humber, I've taken my enjoyment of it to an amazing level after recently discovered an awesome new way to use it: WIN FREE STUFF! I know, its sounds sketchy, like something I would never endorse (hey Brian, you're sending this stranger your mailing address and (s)he is going to send you an exciting package!...hypocrite).

Anyways, in the past two weeks I have won a short-film trilogy from the National Film Board of Canada, Season One of Nurse Jackie, AND a copy of the Academy award-winning film Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire!! Which is really exciting since it was one of my favorite movies of the year.

I haven't watched any of the NFB ones yet, but I rewatched Precious and started Nurse Jackie. I would highly recommend both. Precious will probably ruin your day because it is so devastating, but its totally worth it. Mo'Nique absolutely deserved every award she picked up. Also, Gabourey Sidibe was really the breakout actor of the year in my opinion. Anyways, if you haven't seen it yet, DO IT!

Nurse Jackie was something I had never really thought about watching. Thanks to Maple Pictures' sweet Twitter contest though, I'm hooked. The show is really creative. Think about all the shitty things you hate about other hospital shows and take them out. Although I've only seen 3 episodes so far, there are no ridiculous relationship stories (yes people are dating/cheating/whatever, but no one has been revealed to be their partner's old roommate's former neighbour's cousin-in-law's penpal's transsexual husband or whatever), or crazy unrealistic storylines (no bomb threats, terrorist attacks, plane crashes into the hospital). It's just a really well written show with real characters, a great theme about drug addiction and honest performances.  I definitely want to see where the show is going and catch up in time for season 2 (which starts really soon...).


So if it weren't for things like Twitter, I wouldn't have gotten some cute little cartoons, one of the year's best movies, and an awesome new show. At this time last year, when I was using it to pimp out bagels and coffee for Cogro, I would have told you Twitter was this completely useless idea. But now not only am I using it to communicate, I'm winning free shit (I know that's not the point.... )and discovering things that I wouldn't have put that much time into.

Have a good night! I'm gonna try and squeeze in one more episode of Jackie!
-Brian.

Oscar's Tomorrow!

The Academy Awards are announced tomorrow morning! So excited. Here's how I would like for them to stack up:

Best Picture:

1) Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
2) The Hurt Locker
3) Inglourious Basterds
4) The Fantastic Mr. Fox (might happen?)
5) An Education
6) Antichrist (no way in hell)
7) Away We Go (not going to happen)
8) Bright Star (doubtful)
9) (500) Days of Summer (maybe)
10) Up in The Air

* I think my 5 sketchy ones will be replaced by Invictus, Up, Avatar (sadly), District 9, and Crazy Heart

Why "The Hurt Locker Matters"

Kathryn Bigelow made history Saturday night. She became the first woman to ever win the Director’s Guild Award for Outstanding Direction in a Feature Film. Her movie The Hurt Locker has been dominating the awards circuit for the past few weeks. Although Bigelow has been a critic’s awards favourite, James Cameron was expected to take the win for directing Avatar.

Her win for The Hurt Locker is important for several reasons. It breaks the feeling that directing is a ‘boys club’. Bigelow hasn’t made her career out of directing flimsy romances or period dramas. She has chosen to direct tougher fare- suspense thrillers and action movies, genres which traditionally are done by male directors. The Hurt Locker shows that she knows how to play their game and do it much better than most of them.

Director Kathryn Bigelow

It is worth mentioning that The Hurt Locker is an Iraq war film. This makes her win even more substantial. Out of the dozens of Iraq related films that have come out in the last decade, The Hurt Locker is the only one to have achieved any real critical and popular success (by which I don’t mean commercial, rather that audiences have responded well to it).

The Hurt Locker is also the lowest=grossing film of all the movies receiving major awards attention. It was given a poor limited release by Summit Entertainment over the summer. Most people are now discovering it on DVD due to excellent word of mouth. While Avatar has made nearly US$2 billion worldwide, Bigelow’s film has made about US$15 million.

The Academy Awards will be announced Tuesday. Bigelow is once again the frontrunner.