West Side Story Wins!

The Grammy, that is. The cast album won Best Musical Show Album, according to Broadwayworld.com.

The revival is great, and stars Tony nominee (and Argentinian goddess of the high note) Josefina Scaglione, Tony winner Karen Olivo (her new album will be out any day now!), and Matt Cavenaugh (before he left in December). If you're in New York, I highly reccomend checking out the Tony/Grammy winning production directed by the play's librettist, 91 year old Arthur Laurents.

If not, check out the soundtrack on iTunes/amazon.com! It's great. It's just impossible to get tired of Matt, Josefina, and Karen's voices.

Have you seen the show or listened to the new cast album? Love the movie? Love another Broadway show? Please, do share in the comments!

Oscars 2009 - Expect Dancing! And Lots Of It

Check out the brief (but still enlightening) interview with Oscar producer, Adam Shankman! He says to expect a lot of dancers on stage, more than last year. Interesting, I like the sound of this. (I love these kind of musical numbers others hate!)

Here's a look at last year's Oscar Musical Number ( a la Beyonce ! ) . Sorry about the poor quality!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwXu4seYckI

Anna Kendrick

I'm doing this as part of StinkyLulu's blogathon, but I'm a teeny bit late!

Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air is just about the best thing to happen to supporting actresses this decade (so sorry, Mo'Nique!). What exactly is a supporting actress? Somebody whose presence moves the film from good to great? Somebody who makes a character with limited screentime? Somebody who executes every scene so perfectly it's almost as if the word supporting was made to honor them and them only? Check, check, and check! Anna Kendrick has it all.

Take the firing scene (via the webcam, that is). Tell an actor to do that scene for an audition, you'll get some bore of a performance. When you have Anna Kendrick completely understand Natalie Keener to the point of practically being her, you get movie magic. It's not movie magic in the sense that Avatar is a revelation in technical achievements, or Gone with the Wind is to the epics, but it is movie magic in its simplest sense: Being transported to another world where humans live, not impressions and knock-offs. Natalie, as so well done by Anna, is a real human captured on celluloid. She has ticks, she has a mind, and it's as if a script weren't even there for Anna to read. It's all of these reasons, and many more, that I salutre Miss Kendrick! Congrats. girl, you've earned it.

Golden Globe Predictions

Really quickly, here are my Golden Globe guesses (love me some alliteration!):

Film:
Best Picture (D) - Up in the Air
Best Picture (M/C) -(500) Days of Summer

Actor (D) - Jeff Bridges
Actor (M/C) - Daniel Day-Lewis

Actress (D) - Carey Mulligan
Actress (M/C) - Meryl Streep

Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz
Supporting Actress - Mo'Nique (please let Anna Kendrick win here!)

Director - James Cameron
Screenplay - Inglourious Basterds

Original Score - Up
Original Song - "The Weary Kind"

Animated Feature - Up
Foreign Language Film - The White Ribbon

TV:
Drama Series - Mad Men
Comedy Series - Glee

Actor (D) - Hugh Laurie
Actor (M/C) - Alec Baldwin

Actress (D) - Julianna Margulies
Actress (M/C) - Courteney Cox

Miniseries/TV film - Grey Gardens

Actor (Miniseries/Tv film) - Brendan Gleeson
Actress (Miniseries/Tv film) - Drew Barrymore

Supporting Actor (Miniseries/Tv film) - John Lithgow
Supporting Actress (Miniseries/Tv film) - Jane Lynch

Susan Sarandon Interview

There sure is a lot of Susan Sarandon on this blog, isn't there?



Well, now there's more!

I was reading an interview with her on Rotten Tomatoes, and thought this bit about the Oscars was interesting...



"I would love to get a nomination, but the problem is that very often, the supporting category is crowded by people that are actually in lead parts, and so people that are in supporting parts don't get a shot, so I don't know what's going to happen with that. But I would love to get a nomination, just because it's fun, and I think Saoirse deserves it. I would love to see Stanley [Tucci] get one; I've worked with him twice before this [in Joe Gould's Secret and Shall We Dance?] and he's done such great work, and he's such a pro and such a good guy."




Anyway, did you here that Academy? She wants a nomination. She's been turning in delicious supporting roles since the beginning of the 00's. She just needs to find the right one to strike a chord with the Academy (a la Meryl Streep in Adaptation. or Gloria Stuart in Titanic). I've got some hope for the new decade.


So c'mon Academy, what are you waiting for? Let's nominate Susan in the ... teens. Is that the name of this new decade?


(The picture at the right is of happier times for Susan and Tim...)

What are your thoughts on Susan and her Oscar-less turn as of late (and by late, I mean since 1996 when she walked to the podium to accept. How easily Oscar forgets!)

Best of 2009 and Luise Rainer

This title might be a little misleading...you see, my "Best of 2009" has been postponed (rather indefinitely) as I still try to catch up on films! I'll try to do it before Oscar nominations, but no guarantees!

Also, happy 100th, Luise Rainer!

Status Update

So I originally planned to hand out my own personal award type things on February 6th. I'll be moving that up to January 12th! As well as a top ten of 2009 to follow on January 13th!

Films that still need to be seen (but there are no guarantees!)

Bright Star, Moon, Public Enemies, It’s Complicated, Broken Embraces, A Single Man, A Serious Man, The Informant!, The Lovely Bones, Invictus, District 9, Where the Wild Things Are, Whip It, Julia, Cheri, Duplicity, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Messenger, The Last Station

The only ones that seem possible for that deadline are...
District 9
Julia
Invictus
The Lovely Bones
The Messengers

Hopefully I get to see all of these and then some!