Happy birthday to Mettel Ray! My blog-baby is 10 years old today and I couldn’t describe my emotions even if I tried. It’s definitely a special day! Which is why I decided, due to the special occasion, that instead of just celebrating my blogiversary on May 1st, I’d prolong the celebrations to last for 10 days. That’s right, you’re getting 10 days of Mettel Ray Top 10 lists. It will be all very random, just like me, and the topics will range from movies, shows, music, books etc. First up, probably the hardest list I had to compile because there are a lot of movies I rewatch… but here are 10 movies that I love to go back to every now and then.
Here we are, wrapping up another month and what a weird little month it has been. Not just because I have spent the entire month indoors basically but because I’ve seen the movies I’ve seen. More precisely I saw three Nicole Kidman movies and I had a weird ride with them all. One of these movies was so weird and so wild that I actually thought I had consumed some sort of drug. Anyway, that being said, I’m excited to bring you the fourth Hidden Gems of 2020. And a very strange movie.
Weeks melt into one and before I know it, another Thursday is around the corner. This week we’re looking into numbers – oooooo, numbers in movie titles (not sequels though)! I don’t know why I’m making this so strange, it’s just numbers. Here are my picks with a surprise twist at the end.
With this week’s theme being in ways very versatile, I decided to go with the animation route. Currently I feel like animations with animals are the current time. They are all really good and if you haven’t seen them, I recommend them highly. Plus, animations that have animals in them are cute and we all need some cuteness.
Despite the fact that Tomorrowland runs for two hours and ten minutes, there isn’t much going on that I would be able to grab on and discuss endlessly. I understand what the movie tries to achieve but all these elements like the futuristic world, a little robot girl, scary robots and George Clooney put together just doesn’t work. It doesn’t wow, it doesn’t thrill, it just is and considering the possibilities of futurism, Tomorrowland simply feels bland.
Once in a while there comes a movie that will simply blow your mind. But it wouldn’t shoot your brains out American Beauty style, it will be that good kind of blowing – pun intended and all. For me, and for so many of my fellow bloggers out there, Gravity is that movie of 2013 which simply took us, shook us, threw us around, comforted us and eventually just blew us away…. into space.
I have no idea why I hadn’t seen Burn After Reading before today but I’m guessing I was just stupid. Don’t worry, I’m currently metaphorically banging my head against the table whilst thinking that it took me 5 years to see this entertaining and yet serious comedy that is light years away from the previous “funny” experience I had with Identity Thief. There’s a small chance that yesterdays horror as well as Brad Pitt’s astonishing performance lead to today’s high rating but then again, Burn After Reading is delightful on its own and yet another hit for the Coen brothers.
So just the other day I was reading Front Room Cinema’s quest to find the best movies of the past 10 years, and 2004’s pick was Sideways. Not sure if I agree 100% but I do think Sideways was one of the coolest comedies I had seen and I actually think I appreciate that movie now more than I did back then. That being said, I was not surprised when I finished watching The Descendants and my love for it seemed endless – Alexander Payne had come back with guns blazing and is easily becoming one of my favorite comedy writer (adapters)/directors out there.
The Descendants wins the Best Motion Picture and George Clooney gets the Best Actor (Drama)
So it is over, another year of movies has sort of passed (since the awards usually reflect the end) and the Globes are given to the best of the best. Like I said, George Clooney had a great year and it is proven by the fact that he took home the Best Motion Picture for the Descendants and the Best Actor! I had a feeling about that or was it just my respect for Clooney that created that feeling, but either way I am thrilled for him. The same non-surprise moment was The Artist winning the Best Motion Picture and Best Actor in the Musical or Comedy category and it is on its way to the Oscars for sure. Best Actress awards in the ladies category went to Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady (Drama) and Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn (Comedy). Last was probably the best choice out of all but since I have not seen all the movies yet I can not really tell. Just heard that it was good from various sources. The Best Director went to no other than Martin Scorsese for Hugo – I sort of mentioned that as well as you can remember but it is interesting that although the Best Director went to Scorsese The Descendants is probably better. Honestly, for me it looks like politics – I mean, all the great names got something, even Woody Allen got his Best Screenplay with the Midnight in Paris. I have to look up how many Best Motion Pictures get the Best Director, there should be some great statistics there – but it is probably a way to give all the great movies at least one great award in case there are big names and big movies – I am rambling now so I will stop.
Best Foreign Film - A Separation
I am very happy that I have seen the Best Foreign Film Golden Globe winner which of course is A Separation. There was probably no doubt, it had very amazing reviews and people have been talking about it a lot so it was just a matter of documenting it with an award. There was also the Best Score category where the winner was The Artist – which is logical cause a great movie without any talking will have a soundtrack that holds it together.
But since Golden Globes also are a lot about the TV-shows I want to focus on them as well. (Personally I think I know this category the best cause I have seen more and am more likely to comment.) Best Television Series is Homeland – ironically I have not seen it and I was certain that American Horror Story would win for its innovative approach but I guess war is a subject which can not be over turned at award shows. Interesting enough, IMDb reflects the result by giving Homeland 8,7 and AHS 8,5 but in that case Game of Thrones should have won by a long shot – a score over 9 is something out of this world! Just proves that not all can be brought down to numbers. Anyhow, Best Television Series (Comedy) is Modern Family which I have to admit, I am not a big fan of – I guess I am not as mainstream as I thought but no big deal. Best Mini-Series is Downton Abbey which I like very much indeed. Interesting enough, Claire Danes takes the Globe for Best Performance in Homeland and Matt LeBlanc does the same in the Comedy category. Last is by far the biggest surprise for me cause I was putting my money on Galecki or Baldwin but I guess LeBlanc finally got what he deserved back when he was portraying Joey (in Friends and in Joey) – I bet he can look in the mirror and answer to his own question “How you doin’?” with a great big smile! My big smile goes to Idris Elba for Best Performance in a Mini-Series/Motion Picture for TV category as well as the same for Kate Winslet for Mildred Pierce – both amazing characters and no doubt worthy of the Globe. And to end with a happy note, American Horror Story did get an award and it went for Best Performance in a Supporting Role and Jessica Lange took that out of everybody’s hand – well done! Hope we see her the next season as well!
So, although my favorites did not manage to take home some gold, for instance New Girl – I am still pretty content with the winners. Most happy about Clooney of course and a little thrilled about The Artist now cause it will probably make history with the Oscars winning it for a silent film after 70 years – and that will be a political statement for sure! So, while hoping that the Academy Award will show that simplicity is sometimes the best choice, I look forward to the next BIG award show next month while I meantime try to watch all the winners – thank god for my long school-brake!
Before the nominations for Academy Awards are announced (January 24th) there is one important award show for movies and also TV-shows. Therefore it pretty much gives an idea where the bigger Oscars are going to go (it happened last year). But since I did not do a post about the Globes last year I decided to do one this year.
It will basically be just a list of those who are nominated and some of my ideas about who should get the award. Basically just a very subjective rant based on my own favorites. Although I have not seen all of the movies/TV-shows which is pretty much a problem but it has not stopped me before. So here are the nominations (not all of them – you can see the full list here) for the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards.
As you can see, I left out a lot of the categories cause I thought it would be pointless to have the full list in my blog. But that put aside, I am thrilled that Johnny Galecki is finally nominated for a Golden Globe for his character in The Big Bang Theory. I am quite sure, that Big Bang is the best comedy out there at the moment – next to the new comer New Girl. Zooey Deschanel got a nomination for her role in the New Girl as well as the show itself. I bet they get at least one of the Globes.
George Clooney in The Descendants
As far as the movies go, there are a lot of big names this year – Scorsese, Spielberg and Clooney. And if we are already talking about Clooney, why not mention that he has had a very good year – The Descendants and The Ides of March are both nominated accordingly for 5 and 4 Golden Globes! Although I am surprised that Drive got only one nomination (for a supporting role) but I am happy that despite that Ryan Gosling got TWO nominations for best actor in both drama and musical/comedy category (The Ides of March and Crazy, Stupid, Love).
Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupid, Love
Everybody are talking about The Artist going for the Academy Award for best movie so there is no reason why it should not win the Golden Globe for best movie in musical/comedy category. I am really hoping that Bridesmaids does not take the win from it, although I would not mind if 50/50 would be the best out of them all. With that category I am all out of ideas which is sad cause I have many more about the drama movies this year. I mean, I have seen only two but it seems like a pretty tough competition between all of them. I am a little bit surprised that The Help is in the drama slot – I was certain it was something between a dramatic comedy. It did have the very comedic character portrayed by Jessica Chastain (most memorable for me personally). Anyway, my stupidity aside, The Help has 5 nominations – out of which two are both for the supporting actress.
Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer in The Help
I am quite sure that it will get at least one but I am thinking that when it comes to the best drama movie of the year The Descendants and The Ides of March would be the bigger names this year – just because I like George Clooney a lot at the moment (had an Ocean’s marathon). Though I have a slight suspicion that one of the bigger names will get it instead – Hugo or War Horse. But who knows, maybe Moneyball is the best of them all and will win big. Either way I am grossing my fingers for Clooney and Gosling and a little bit for American Horror Story for going for the best television series – drama.
Until the winners are announced, there is lots of other posts to look forward to, maybe even some among these lists (I know there are three at least). And then, after not such a long wait, the winners are announced on January 15th, there will be another post about the results which hopefully will make Clooney happy.
