http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7280793.stm

The man speaks the truth. Zombies, by definition, cannot move fast because of their rotting flesh and ligaments. Shame on you Zack Snyder. Though Dawn of the Dead was still pretty good.

Will Win (Should Win)

Best Picture: No Country For Old Men (No Country for Old Men)
Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (Daniel Day-Lewis)
Best Actress: Marion Cotillard (Marion Cotillard)
Best Supp. Actor: Javier Bardem (Casey Affleck)
Best Supp. Actress: Cate Blanchett (Cate Blanchett)
Best Original Screenplay: Juno (Juno)
Best Adapted Screenplay: No Country For Old Men (Atonement)
Cinematography: Roger Deakins (Janusz Kaminski)

*EDIT* 7 out of 9 ain’t bad….

Want to get into Tarkovsky, but keep falling asleep during his very long films? Then may I suggest some sort of drinking game to get you through the long screen duration. Some suggested rules:

Drink of choice: Tarko was not a big drinker, but vodka would appear to be most suitable.

Take one drink for each of the following:

• Any take lasting longer than 3 minutes.
• Any extended shot of the back of a character’s head.
• A female character having some kind of mental breakdown
• A shot illustrating ‘the beauty of nature’ etc.. etc..
• Arty reflection in a mirror
• Character reappearing in frame after long pan away from them
• Existential discussion of man’s position in the universe

And the following deserve more:

• A shift from monochrome to high-saturation colour or vice versa – TWO DRINKS
• Indoor rain – TWO DRINKS
• Some form of levitation – FINISH THE BOTTLE

Happy viewing!

Best Film: Atonement (its just too British and lavish not to win)
Best British Film: Control (as a consolation prize)
Best Foreign Language Film: The Lives of Others (though possibly too old)
Best Director: Joe Wright (see Atonement)
Best Leading Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
Best Leading Actress: Julie Christie (they can’t give it to Knightley, surely?)
Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem
Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett

Orange Rising Star: tough one to call, given that its based on the public vote. Would love to see Ellen Page win it, but Sam Riley will probably walk away with the gong.

*EDIT* Alas, only 4 out of 9 right. Dagnamit.

It’s easy to tell that awards season is upon us, as a host of great films have crept their way into cinemas nationwide over the last few weeks. But this has the unfortunate effect of creating a certain degree of cinema fatigue amongst film-lovers this time of year. No better example of this than yesterday, dubbed ‘Super Friday’ by The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, who awarded 5-star reviews for three new releases – Juno, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and There Will Be Blood.

Though all very different films, there is some major crossover in the potential audience for these three films (i.e. me). So will they all suffer from having to compete against each other? I hope not, as they all look remarkable pieces of work, unfortunately by dint of some poor organization being released on the same day here in the UK. Their US release dates were:

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: 30th November 2007
Juno: 25th December 2007
There Will Be Blood: 11 January 2008

i.e. nicely spaced out, so as to avoid any overlap for the arthouse audience. They do this with the summer blockbusters, too, so they do not clash with each others box-office returns. So come February next year, can someone please sort it out so that we poor cinema-going folks don’t have to go to the pictures three times in one weekend just to keep up with the good stuff?