Oscars 2014

N is for Lupita Nyong’o

Gosh Lupita’s beautiful isn’t she? And super talented! It’s so unfair.

12 Years a Slave (2013) is a tough film to watch for a number of reasons but Lupita’s performance as Patsy is truly incredible and heart-breaking. I don’t think I’ve wanted someone to get the Oscar as much as I wanted her to get it that night.

I was in part expecting all the film roles to open up for Lupita after she won the Oscar (and just about every other award going) but that hasn’t really been the case. She’s in the new Star Wars film which is cool and I really want her to be a badass Queen or Jedi. I’ve got the book The Queen of Katwe by Tim Crothers though I haven’t read it yet, I definitely will be soon since Lupita will be starring in the film adaptation.

I also love Lupita Nyong’o’s sense of style, I mean I’ve never seen her look bad on the red carpet and her dresses are always gorgeous. She’s just so wonderful and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

My Oscars 2014 Hopes and Predictions

As of last night I succeeded in one of my New Year’s Resolutions – I watched every film nominated for Best Film, Best Director and every film in the four performance categories. I’m rather pleased with myself as this means this year (when I watch the Oscars live for the first time) I can actually have a fully informed opinion on who or what I’d like to win.

So without further ado, here are a few of my hopes and predictions about what’s going to happen tonight.

In short, I’d very much like 12 Years a Slave to win every award it’s been nominated for – unfortunately that doesn’t look too likely if the way in which awards season has gone so far, though that being said it did take just about every award it was nominated for last night at the Independent Spirit Awards.

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REVIEW: The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger came out last summer and I’ve heard a lot of opinions ranging from “It’s alright” to “It’s just bad.” To be honest the negative comments mostly came from my mum who saw it at a free secret preview screening – though I think she was ready to dislike it after finding out it wasn’t Thor: The Dark World like she’d hoped.

Yesterday I decided to watch it. Mostly because it was the only film in the Best Visual Effects category at this year’s Oscars that I hadn’t seen – and also because in my mind that spot should have gone to Pacific Rim. But I felt as if I couldn’t justify saying that until I had at least given The Lone Ranger a chance.

So what did I think? It was alright. It’s in no way fantastic but it was at least entertaining for the majority of the time. At least it was when the characters weren’t being frustrating and there weren’t jumps in the narrative and odd attempts at humour. (more…)

My thoughts on the Oscars 2014 nominations

The nominations for the 86th Academy Awards were announced yesterday. After looking through them all I have to say generally I’m quite happy with who and what was nominated – though I am a bit gutted by a few omissions.

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to watch all the films nominated for Oscars this year – or at least all those in the four acting categories, and best director and best film. By the looks of things I should be able to tick off that resolution by the time the Oscar winners are announced on March 2^nd.

Let’s start with Best Film. I have seen six of the nine films nominated, the three I haven’t seen being Her, Dallas Buyers Club and The Wolf of Wall Street. Those three films have yet to be released in the UK (or in the case of The Wolf of Wall Street it’s released today). Out of what I’ve seen so far (and if I’m honest seeing the other three films won’t change this) 12 Years A Slave should most definitely win.