Sailesh Ghelani rambles on about his thoughts on cinema’s biggest awards ceremony, The 84th Academy Awards 2012

Yes, the Oscars are here and I’m a tad late with this little ramble but nevertheless I will ramble. Did you know that in the last seven years the Golden Globe Award winners for Best Picture haven’t matched the Academy’s choice? But they do say the Globes are a good barometer for what will transpire in most other categories at the Oscars.

Uggie and Jean Dujardin in The Artist

By that logic, The Artist may not win top honours (Best Picture) on the Big Night, but George Clooney may well win for Actor in a Leading Role (The Descendants). I’m not sure Clooney deserves it however. Some say there are one or two brilliant scenes of him in the film. The one where he’s running down the road awkwardly – to confront his best friends about his wife’s affair – in those Hawaiian slippers being one such scene. Oh come on! Brad Pitt did a fair bit more getting into his character for Moneyball and though some Indian critics have commented he’s like the ‘Indian Shah Rukh Khan’ (all looks and personality but no acting) I think that’s utter baloney. Brad’s done some outstanding work and he is well-deserving.

But The Artist‘s Jean Dujardin won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy at the Globes (Clooney winning for Best Actor in a Drama) so maybe it is between the two of them. Poor Gary Oldman (nominated for Actor in a Leading Role) from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has conceded with a laugh that he won’t win, it’ll be the English-challenged Dujardin who wins gold. And that’s a shame considering Oldman has never won and certainly deserves the honour. Mexican new-face Demián Bachir (A Better Life) has also been nominated but is, how they say, the Dark Horse.

Speaking of horses, that horrible epic film by ‘Executive producer on almost every other film’ Stephen Spielberg is up for Best Picture (War Horse). If it or The Tree Of Life win I will be losing a bit of respect for the Oscars.

Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady

And hey good old Meryl Streep is up for yet another Oscar for her take on Britain’s foremost Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. The film has gotten mixed reviews but her performances usually make even dog turd look like gold. I mean she’s been nominated 17 times (2 wins) at the Academy Awards and 26 times (8 wins) at the Golden Globes. Maybe they should just have a mould of her as the statuette now!

Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer in The Help

I don’t think Michelle Williams was that good in My Week With Marilyn so Actress in a Leading Role could also go to popular nominee Viola Davis for The Help. It’ll be a real coup if Dragoon Tattoo girl Rooney Mara causes an upset.

Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn

Michel Hazanavicius, director of The Artist and American icon Martin Scorsese, director of Hugo seem head-to-head for Best Director. And frankly none of the other three: Alexander Payne (The Descendants), Terrance Malick (The Tree Of Life) or Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) have fared that well at the other awards ceremonies so it’s a face off.

George Clooney in The Descendants

In my opinion Supporting Role awards should go to Kenneth Branagh (My Week With Marilyn) and Octavia Spencer (The Help) but then I haven’t seen some of the other films so this opinion may not be a reliable one, unfortunately.

As for Music (Original Score) I’d say The Artist‘s Ludovic Bource is pretty much a guaranteed win considering his score has made what could have been an okay film a delightful one.

I haven’t covered all the categories since I haven’t seen all the films but I just thought I’d give you an idea of what to expect and what I think after watching a good amount of films in my humble capacity as ‘film reviewer’ (I don’t like the monicker ‘critic’) in Mumbai.

Let’s catch up again after the awards on Tuesday 28th February (India) and review the Oscar ceremony with everyone’s favourite host Billy Crystal, back after last years disastrous Anne Hathaway/James Franco hosts. Ohh and I so hope The Artist’s doggie star Uggie features on stage, don’t you?

<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Bennett Miller. Starring Brad Pitt, Robin Wright, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The true story in Moneyball is played almost entirely off the field but it is nevertheless inspiring and engaging.

A lot of people may not know the intricacies of the American sport of baseball and though the film is replete with technical jargon and statistics about the game, the filmmakers have still managed to make things simple, relatable and stirring.

Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, a former baseball player expected to make it big but ultimately disappointing his scouts and himself. He eventually becomes the manager of the Oakland Athletic’s baseball team and faces some difficult decisions being at the helm of a losing team with almost no star players. In a league that is constantly ‘trading’ players from one team to another, Billy Beane is groping in the dark, trying to convince other teams to trade him their players. But little does he know, he’s got it all wrong. Geeky economist turned analyst Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) who works for a rival team lets Billy in on the secret of ‘statistical analysis’.

After stealing Peter away, Billy decides he’s going to give this new form of player selection (that figured in the book by Michael Lewis called Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game) a fair chance. Skeptics in the team aren’t convinced and it’s an uphill battle that doesn’t pay off immediately.

In between all the trading of players and the struggle to find the perfect team, director Bennett Miller intersperses flashbacks from Bean’s youth and his disillusionment and dejection at being a failure and making the wrong decision to get in to the field of baseball. You also learn that he has a family, an ex wife played by the lovely Robin Wright and a daughter who plays Jack Johnson songs on her guitar and subtly inspires her dad. Which means he has even more to prove while struggling with his own demons and superstitions (he never watches his own matches).

Moneyball is about strategy and the business of the game. It isn’t about players on the field-winning matches. It’s about how a winning team is made, the politics and the technicalities of sport, that make it more than what you watch on TV or go to the stadium and watch with your hotdog and foam finger hand. All this makes Moneyball an intriguing film and something different from the regular formula sports movies.

Jonah Hill is funny and likable. Philip Seymore Hoffman as the reluctant coach of the team who fights Billy Bean’s decisions plays his grumpy part well. Brad has been nominated for an Oscar for his role, enough said.

Moneyball is the more subdued of this week’s award-winning/nominated films but it is an intelligent and entertaining movie nonetheless.

<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Simon Curtis. Starring Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Julia Ormond, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Watson, Judi Dench.

Based on a true story, the film gives you a glimpse into the psyche of America’s enigmatic sex symbol and a young man’s brief romantic encounter with the ‘greatest star of all time’.

“Only the public can make a star. It’s the studios who try to make a system out of it.”

That’s what Marilyn said and the star that was perceived as ditsy by some was bang on. This was one blonde who didn’t fit the stereotype. Oh yes she was difficult to deal with, had tantrums and affairs, was insecure and finally died at the age of 36 apparently due to an overdose (though there are conspiracy theories to the contrary), but she often had a keen insight into what was happening around her.

The events featured in this film take place in the 1950s during the shooting of the movie The Prince and the Showgirl at Pinewood Studios in England. The director and actor of the movie was legendary actor, producer, director Sir Laurence Olivier who thought it would be delightful to do a film with the sexy Monroe. Little did he know what he was bargaining for.

In any case, while in England, Marilyn, newly married to playwright Arthur Miller, meets third assistant director Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) who has by dint of determination become quite invaluable to Sir Olivier and his production company. And soon, he becomes quite invaluable to Miss Monroe as well.

For one week, as she shows up late for shooting, much to Olivier’s chagrin, she struggles with demons, addiction to medication and claustrophobia. But strapping young Colin provides just the right escape her inner child desires and he’s all too happy to prance around the countryside with her. Even though he’s been suitably warned that his little heart will be broken shortly. Well worth it if only to be skinny dipping in a lake with Marilyn Monroe eh!

Now a lot of people may not identify with Michelle Williams as Marilyn, one because she doesn’t look much like her and two because she doesn’t exude as much sex appeal as you’d imagine Monroe would have had. But Williams does a fine job of giving us the essence of what made up Marilyn Monroe: a smart cookie, who would play innocent and insecure but secretly knew what she was doing.

Eddie Redmayne is convincing. Emma Watson does a better job in this small role as Colin’s second-best love interest than Daniel Radcliffe did in The Woman In Black. Judi Dench as Marilyn’s co-actor, staunch supporter and mother-figure is solid and fun. But Kenneth Branagh’s performance is truly the masterwork of the film.

While her antics on set and the subsequent frustrations caused are amply covered you never quite get why there is a latent admiration for Monroe’s acting abilities, at least not from this film. For that you’ll have to watch Some Like It Hot.

<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Michel Hazanavicius. Starring Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, James Cromwell, John Goodman, Uggie.

This ‘period’ film with its black and white/silent film gimmick has made noise at all the award shows because it’s beautifully made and wonderfully acted.

Director Michel Hazanavicius pays homage to silent films with The Artist. And so, the film is black and white and almost completely ‘silent’. Just like they did in the old days, the music sets the mood, important dialogue is put up in text slides and expressions do all the talking. Poignant, funny and brilliantly acted, The Artist is a revelation of sorts. That you can still make a film without sound, colour or audible dialogue and make it entertaining is amazing. Jean Dujardin (up for an Oscar for Best Actor) as the ‘silent film actor’ and Bérénice Bejo as the young upstart getting into the ‘talkies’ (talking movies) are delightful.

The story is a simple one: George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is the star of the silent film era but soon technology in the form of ‘talking movies’ elbows him out to make way for new talent like Valentin’s protégé the young newbie Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo). His slide into obscurity and decline into a quicksand of depression and her secret love for him makes for an emotional and tantalising journey.

The director has played with the whole silent concept by introducing sound in just two scenes in the film: at one point to show how sound is driving Valentin crazy and at the very end to show us why he didn’t make it in talkie films.

James Cromwell as his trusty Man Friday and John Goodman as his Hollywood producer are extremely good supporting characters for the expressive Dujardin and Bejo, both of whom probably are shocked at receiving so many award nominations. Sometimes silence is indeed golden. Of course there’s a mesmerising background score by Ludovic Bource, deftly complementing the visuals on screen.

And we can’t end a review about this film without mentioning Uggie the dog. He accompanies George Valentin’s character through most of the film and is simultaneously funny, cute and integral to the plot of the film. You may have seen him on stage at the Golden Globe Awards when the film won there. He’s even made people ponder having a separate category of awards for animal actors. Joey the stallion from War Horse, watch out!

Not all the critics are convinced about The Artist, it certainly isn’t the greatest film or even a great film. But it is delightfully good and credit must be given for achieving such brilliance with no CGI, dialogue or colour in a day of 3D monstrosities.

<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Roman Polanski. Starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C Reilly.

International director Roman Polanski wonderfully adapts a stage play set in an apartment with the help of some creative writing and cutting-edge performances.

Award-winning and controversial director Roman Polanski is back with a film adaptation of a stage play called Gods of Carnage by Yasmina Reza (who has also written the screenplay for this film) and has dropped the words ‘Gods of’ simply keeping the word that aptly describes what metaphorically happens here.

After school kid Zachary Cowan ‘armed’ with a stick assaults classmate Ethan Longstreet, thereby ‘disfiguring’ his face and knocking out two of his incisors, the respective parents meet at the Longstreet house to reconcile the matter. Penelope (Jodie Foster) and Michael (John C Reilly) Longstreet are the ‘victim’s’ parents but they veer away from an accusatory tone instead trying to be civil and be the ‘better people’. They simply want Nancy (Kate Winslet) and Alan (Christoph Waltz) Cowan to apologise and ask their son to do so as well, apart from straightening out what happened between the two. No blame, just healthy dialogue. In theory, that is.

Over some homemade apple and apricot cobbler cake, in between frequent cell phone calls by Alan, a workaholic lawyer who admits his son is a menace, the two couples try extremely hard to wear the masks of understanding and acceptance. Until of course fractures start forming in the conversation. And then, almost like water seeping through a crack in the ceiling, the tip-tapping of dirty sewage comes spurting forth and the angst, indignation and true colours of these ‘decent’ people is exposed.

All of this wicked banter takes place in the confines of the apartment and only on a few occasions do the Cowan’s make for the elevator only to return to the scene of battle for some coffee or to vomit in a vase of yellow Tulip bulbs and some art books cherished by the on-the-edge Penelope.

Already a brilliant play, Polanski has managed to capture so much emotion, so much putrid reality about relationships and give us so much seriously demented dialogue to laugh at. And the actors (all Academy Award Winners) make sure that this doesn’t turn into a comedic farce of slapstick proportions. Sure Jodie Foster’s character gets a bit too crazy by the end but that’s just because she snaps and most of us in real relationships know how violent that can end up.

At under 80 minutes, you will feel that this film hasn’t quite given you a satisfactory ending but you can chalk that upto it being adapted from a play. But the deftness and artful precision of character traits and relationship insights are depicted completely and marvellously. Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet are simply amazing.

<Review by: Miss K, our European fashionista in India who ruminates and writes on all things fashion>

Aditi Rao Hydari and Ali Zafar

Hello everyone! I have been travelling and have been very busy for the past month and it feels like I have been out of touch with what is happening in the world of fashion. I am telling myself there is no need to worry and getting my weapons ready again! By the way, London Fashion Week has started and I am getting excited; had a peek at Vivienne Westwood’s Red Label and got oh so nostalgic about the Big Smoke (London equivalent of the Big Apple, for those of you who don’t know). Enough digression though, let’s get down to business.

Aditi Rao Hydari

One thing is for sure, Aditi Rao Hydari (click for archive interview) looks as cute as a button in this ensemble. The combination of print with stripes gets a 10/10 from me and it makes the whole outfit work (the fact that I wear that combo very often myself doesn’t make me partial at all). Then comes the colour combination; peach with navy blue and white is unusual (not the ever expected red) and brilliant. She looks youthful, fresh and definitely not trying too hard. The hair and make-up are simple and in line with the rest of her appearance. Matching peep toe shoes and minimal accessories and she is good to go. And for the ladies who want to try out the look: if I am not mistaken I have seen the skirt in a Forever New shop and ONLY has skinny blue belts. I am sure you can get your hands on a stripy tank top anywhere and don’t be afraid to experiment with the colours even more.

Ali Zafar

Ali Zafar looks just in place dressed in smart casuals. I LOVE his jacket, which I think makes this look work. I love the fabric, the colour, the odd pocket, the white finish; it is perfect! I also like the combination with his denims, harmonious without being too matchy-matchy. I wonder though whether a different colour t-shirt and shoes would have worked better – it becomes a little dull as a whole. I would like to see a bright blue for the top at least and pair it with another colour in shoes. The sunglasses suit him really nicely and the watch is one accessory every man needs. 

Candid shot of Ali Zafar and Aditi Rao Hydari

<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Daniel Espinosa. Starring Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Brendan Gleeson, Vera Farmiga.

Packed with ear pounding action, solid performances and a tight script, Safe House is a must watch.

There’s a line in the film where a character in the film calls Denzel’s character ‘the black Dorian Gray’ (referring to the literary character who remains eternally beautiful but gets uglier on the inside). The reference to Denzel’s ‘beauty’ is bang on. This man looks amazing at 57. And boy can he carry off a performance.

The story is about a CIA operative who went rogue called Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) and a Safe House Keeper Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) who must take care of his ‘guest’ Mr Frost who has surrendered himself at the US Consulate in South Africa after evading some other gun toting baddies who are after some information he has. But before Frost can be whisked away to America, the Safe House is breached and Tobin and Matt must escape.

Matt, the low-level operative is entrusted to keeping the high-level asset Tobin safely in his custody. But when he loses him the CIA tell him to chill out and ‘they’ll take it from here’. But Tobin has planted a seed of doubt in Matt’s mind. There must be a traitor who divulged the safe house’s location. Gradually, after deception and escape and re-capture, the two form a bond, a sort of unofficial alliance. It’s not the typical, okay we’re pals now sort of relationship. Right until the end you don’t know if Tobin is going to stab him in the back or leave him for dead.

Gritty cinematography, awesome sound design and neat plot twists keep you riveted. Safe House doesn’t have a new story, but the execution is brilliant. The action is fast-paced. At one point a bullet discharges all of a sudden hitting Tobin’s forger friend and you feel like it has been fired from just above your ear. I started in my seat!

Denzel Washington plays Tobin Frost with calculated straight-faced coldness. He knows what he’s doing at every step and does it with subtlety and confidence. So when he is confronted with a good friend’s death and reacts with vengeance a bit later, it makes it even that more intense. Ryan Reynolds as the newbie wanting to rise up the ranks and do the right thing is suitably convincing. In fact, he’s pretty good. No more rom-coms and superhero movies for him, thank you very much.

<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor. Starring Nicolas Cage, Ciaran Hinds, Idris Elba, Violente Lacido, Fergus Riordan, Johnny Whitworth.

Utter rubbish and a complete waste of my life, which even the devil from this horrendous film can’t give back to me with a ‘deal’.

Okay, enough is enough guys. Yes you, the guys at Marvel. This offbeat, overly complicated comic book antihero just doesn’t cut it for the big screen. CGI characters like The Hulk have never fared well. And having a protagonist with a CGI skull head on fire who just ‘stares’ at victims and delivers punch lines like “Roadkill!”  is going to fare far worse than everyone’s favourite green giant.

Starting off with a quick graphical synopsis of the first film and how Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) becomes the Ghost Rider, the film moves on to a set up about a boy called Danny (Fergus Riordan) who is on the run with his mother Nadya (Violante Placido) from ‘evil guys’ who are working for the devil: Ciaran Hinds’s Roarke. A kindly ‘priest’ in the form of black French guy Moreau (Idris Elba) with scary contact lenses tries saving the boy and enlists the aid of Ghost Rider in exchange for giving his soul back.

Danny is supposed to possess powers since he’s a spawn of the devil (his mother also made a deal with the devil to save her own life). He bonds with Blaze who takes him on his super cool hell bike and does some wheelies. They run from goon Carrigan (Whitworth) who has the power of decay in his hands. Whatever he touches turns to dust. But then he is driving an ambulance and it doesn’t turn to dust. The filmmakers can hear you thinking that and show you why: he touches food and it decays but he touches food in plastic and it doesn’t. Okay, so that explains that thank you. But later on in the film he decays guns and other inanimate objects, so how does that work? I guess they forgot just like they forgot to make a watchable film.

Nic Cage, an actor that I think has done some good work in the past, needs to burn in hell for subjecting us to his overacting and insanity. Aren’t his financial woes over yet? Does he have to keep doing this tripe?

Ghost Rider as a character lacks personality and the film is so vacuous that I felt nothing inside. The only good thing about the film is the graphic parts where they tell us about backstory and interesting ‘divine’ titbits on fallen angels. I wish the whole film were like that.

<Review by: Tushar A Amin>

Directed by Gautham Menon. Starring Prateik, Amy Jackson, Manu Rishi, Sachin Khedekar.

Bad acting, meet lame old story.

There is no escaping love stories when it comes to films. The only hope is an inventive approach, a new perspective, a different treatment, anything that sidesteps the dated ‘boy meets girl’ cliché. It is this elephant in the screening room that the gen next of filmmakers is trying to find a way around with films like Band Baajaa Baaraat or the most recent Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu. So, when a film like Ek Deewana Tha dishes out an ostentatiously dated premise where the conflict is difference of religion or parent’s disapproval, the least you expect are some decent performances that would compensate for the lack of originality.

With Prateik and Amy Jackson as the lead pair, Ek Deewana Tha robs you off even that one hope. The result is an excruciatingly fickle, slow, overdrawn and repetitive fare that would any day be trumped by a Parents’ Day performance at a local kindergarten.

The acting is uniformly stilted and self-conscious. This is the second strike for Prateik. Goofy? Not. Romantic? Even though his hands are forever channeling Shah Rukh Khan, not. He should now explore the indie circuit where his limited range finds a more tailored channel. He may not get 13 chances like the others. Amy Jackson should borrow a page from Katrina’s manual and choose wisely (read superstars as co-stars) if she’s to survive here. She is neither dazzlingly beautiful, nor super talented to carry off this particular film. But then, we’ve had Nargis Fakhri!

Filmmakers like Mani Ratnam and Imtiaz Ali have proven that romantic films are all about moments and chemistry. The writing of Ek Deewana Tha tries hard but lacks both. The screenplay and characters have a tiring and trying fickleness about them. The editing is slipshod and at 2 hours and 20 minutes, the film is overdrawn by almost an hour (that feels like an eternity). AR Rahman’s soundtrack is below average and further burdened by forced, faux-poetic lyrics. As a matter of fact, there seems to be no justification for three versions of this tripe.

If there was any manner in which Gautham Menon’s Tamil original Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya had any redeeming quality, it has been lost in translation. Time and again, it has been proven that the charm of a vernacular film lies in its rootedness. Ek Deewana Tha just reinforces this fact.

<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck. Starring Jason Sudeikis, Tyler Labine, Leslie Bibb.

Irreverent, vulgar and farcical but still funny, relevant and almost cultish, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy is a satisfying comedy.

Apparently vulgar sex comedies have made more money in the US than superhero films have. So it’s no wonder then that successful TV writers Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck thought of writing and directing this one.

Eric (Jason Sudeikis) and his friends (played by Tyler Labine, Angela Sarafyan, Michelle Borth, Martin Starr, Lake Bell, Lindsay Sloane and Nick Kroll) lead relatively dysfunctional lives, have jobs they may not like, were part of a ‘lost’ generation who never got to have group sex because AIDS had just hit the world. They are shaken up when close friend Glenn (Will Forte) marries other friend Kate (Lucy Punch) and when Eric’s wealthy playboy father played by Don Johnson decides to sell off their summer home, a place the gang have their traditional (but far from that) parties at.

Eric decides that before the house is sold – and they try everything they can to distract and delay pretty real estate agent Kelly (Leslie Bibb) from doing so – they must have one last big blowout party. And the theme: an old fashioned orgy among friends.

The film is basically about how they prepare for it, at first most are reluctant but life’s disappointments and circumstances make them change their minds. Eric’s banter with McCrudden (Tyler Labine) is classic. The Hangover had good chemistry amongst its cast and so does this film. It’s not just lewd jokes and gestures but relationships. And the writers/directors have managed to weave that connection in well considering there’s no build up to their friendship. You just have to accept them as long-time friends and it’s pretty easy to do that.

Dildos, penises and cock size feature in the dialogue, so if you’re a bit of a prude you may not like the film. But if can just let your hair down, lay back and take it (no pun intended) then you’re sure to enjoy this film for its effortless situational comedy.

Yes the Indian censors have made some cuts but you’ll still enjoy the movie and the climax!