Tis the Season: The Golden Globes Winners

(Scroll over any film title for the full Black Sheep review.)

I spent last night on the couch with my good friend, Trista DeVries from The Toronto Film Scene, watching the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards. We were but a few feet away from each other but most of the evening was spent in silence, staring at our computer screens while we tweeted about our reactions to the show. On occasion, we actually communicated with each other via Tweet, which is just silly no matter how you spin it. By the end of the night, I had come up short with my predictions and Trista got 17 right, besting me by two. I owe her a night at the movies now. Even my prediction for Best Picture - Drama was wrong! I feel like THE KING'S SPEECH really needed the win here to position itself properly for the Oscars but instead, it looks THE SOCIAL NETWORK might really go all the way. Regardless, this is still the most exciting Best Picture race in years.

As for the Golden Globes, I think we can all agree that Ricky Gervais will likely not be asked back next year. While I did find him often hilarious and scandalous, I also often found him to be just plain scathing and I'm never a fan of just being mean because you can't get a laugh any other way. There were no surprises in any of the film categories for me. The biggest would be overlooking the higher profile Foreign Language film choices but outside of that, the chips fell exactly as I suspected they might. Paul Giamatti is the only exception, with his win as Best Actor - Comedy, for BARNEY'S VERSION, a well deserved win for a great Canadian film. My favorite wins of the night were Natalie Portman for Best Actress - Drama, in BLACK SWAN, and little Chris Colfer, for Best Supporting Actor - Television, for his role on "Glee". Portman's speech felt really genuine and Colfer looked so surprised by his win, I could not help but get a little teary.

It was a great night - great food, wine and company. Let the award shows continue! Now, here is the complete list of Golden Globe film winners ...

BEST MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

BEST MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

BEST DIRECTOR

David Fincher - THE SOCIAL NETWORK

BEST DRAMATIC ACTOR

Colin Firth - THE KING'S SPEECH

BEST DRAMATIC ACTRESS

Natalie Portman - BLACK SWAN

BEST ACTOR - COMEDY OR MUSICAL

Paul Giamatti - BARNEY'S VERSION

BEST ACTRESS - COMEDY OR MUSICAL

Annette Bening - THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale - THE FIGHTER

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Melissa Leo - THE FIGHTER

BEST ANIMATED FILM

TOY STORY 3

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE PICTURE

IN A BETTER WORLD

BEST SCREENPLAY

Aaron Sorkin - THE SOCIAL NETWORK

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - THE SOCIAL NETWORK

BEST SONG

"You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" - from BURLESQUE

For a complete list of winners, visit the Hollywood Foreign Press Association website.

THE GREEN HORNET

Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg

Directed by Michel Gondry

Starring Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, Tom Wilkinson and Christoph Waltz

Britt Reid: That is the balls.

I’ve got to give it up for Seth Rogen. The man has gone from full on geek to perpetual stoner to slimmed down, unexpected superhero in Michel Gondry’s most indisputable attempt to penetrate the mainstream, THE GREEN HORNET, a big budget 3D adaptation of the popular 1930’s radio series. Rogen’s transformation is admirable but ultimately not as successful as it needed to be to irradicate the image of the affable teddy bear character we’ve all come to know, love and get slightly tired of in recent years. Subsequently, THE GREEN HORNET plays like a laid back stoner flick without the actual weed, and Rogen, without the haze of smoke surrounding him, is just not as funny as he is when he’s high. That said, he could have been high throughout the entire production for all I know. It just isn’t written in this time.

Rogen co-wrote the script to THE GREEN HORNET with SUPERBAD co-writer, Evan Goldberg. Under Gondry’s somewhat scattered direction, their screenplay becomes a surprisingly well-woven send-up of many superhero clichés, while remaining reasonably grounded in a realistic place, with the exception of random misplaced bursts of Gondry’s hyperactive imagination. Rogen plays Britt Reid, the only heir to his father’s (Tom Wilkinson) newspaper fortune. Britt lost his mother when he was just a boy and his relationship with his father has always been strained, living in that vastly cast shadow. His life is one party after another until his father dies suddenly. Unable to resolve the public admiration for a man who never seemed to care about him, Britt decides he is going to save the world his way – in a green mask and hat, one bad guy at a time.

Of course, Britt can’t do this alone so he enlists the help of his super genius buddy, Kato (Jay Chou), to be his alter ego, The Green Hornet’s sidekick. He also takes Cameron Diaz into his fold but she just looks confused as to when her career became about playing such superfluous secondary characters the whole time. Together Britt and Kato form something much stronger than your everyday bromance; each of them now orphaned, they actually become brothers. It is their relationship, uneven and influenced by class and status yet still devoted, that makes THE GREEN HORNET so relatable and real, which is a lot to say about a movie where guys can stop time in their mind. This is the age of the every man superhero after all. The trouble with regular guys though is that they are often nowhere near as funny as they think they are.

ANOTHER YEAR

Written and Directed by Mike Leigh

Starring Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen and Lesley Manville

Gerri: Change is hard, isn't it?

Janet: Nothing changes.

Aging is one of those human experiences that, if we’re fortunate enough to get up there that is, is essentially universal in theory. In practice though, some of us age much more gracefully than others. Some of us age while our dreams come true around us, while others do so while watching each of their dreams fall victim to time. Unfortunately, we don’t always get to choose how well life works out for us, so when the years continue to pass, each one has the potential to reinforce what we do or don’t have in our lives. ANOTHER YEAR is British filmmaker, Mike Leigh’s, specific look at one of these years and, in its delightful and touching execution, it contemplates the cruel little imbalances life has to offer.

There is a lot of eating in ANOTHER YEAR and all the glasses at the table are quite distinctly either half empty of half full. The table itself belongs to Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), a couple who have been together for more than 30 years, who are still just as adorable with each other today as the combination of their names suggests they should be. They are joined more often than not at their table by old friends like Mary (a heartbreaking Lesley Manville), who tells herself she is happy alone but drinks to forget she is actually alone whenever she can, and Ken (Peter Wright), who cannot fathom retiring because then he truly won’t have anything at all to do with his time. Sometimes their son, Joe (Oliver Maltman) stops by too. At 30, he hasn’t met anyone special yet and with such a great example of long lasting love to live up to, you know he knows he is missing out. The dinner conversation is never boring and, thanks to the incredible ensemble, always fascinating and enlightening.

Tom and Gerri garden together. ANOTHER YEAR follows their planting cycle from the planting itself to the period of growth, through the harvesting in the fall and finally the inevitable death in the winter. They have been planting in this garden for years, just as Leigh has been making movies for years. And if the relaxed, subtly aware tone of Leigh’s latest work tells me anything, it is that he too knows that all you can do is plant the seed and hope it grows to be strong, tall and surrounded by flowers.

Couch Time with Sheldon

I don't want to brag but I had a lot of time off during the holidays. Clearly, I was still posting here but I was not tending to my day job. As I did not flee the country for somewhere warmer, and as the universe decided I should get sick just after the new year started, I spent a fair amount of time on my couch during my break. Fortunately, a slew of movies had arrived at my door at the time so I was never without something to watch. Here are a couple of the films I caught ...

ANIMAL KINGDOM

I love my family. Having spent an extended period of time with them during the holidays was a bit taxing at times but they are all saints compared to the Cody family in David Michod's Australian export, ANIMAL KINGDOM. Josh, played by newcomer James Frecheville, goes to stay with his grandmother (Jacki Weaver) after his mother overdoses and, before long, he falls in with his uncles and their sordid ways. Ben Mendelsohn plays the ring leader of this pack with such an intensely creepy presence that I almost had to leave the room at times when he was on screen. And it is easy to see why Weaver would be getting awards recognition for her role as the family matriarch. She has nothing but love for her family and will do anything .. and I do mean anything .. to protect them. (eOne)

JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK

Joan Rivers works very hard and she wants you all to know it in the new documentary based on the later years of her career, JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK, directed by Ricki Stern. Back when Rivers was on "The Tonight Show" as Jonny Carson's permanent stand-in, America loved her. She had a whip-smart tongue and she was a pioneer for female comediennes. The years were not kind though and public opinion of Rivers has been reduced to a joke, most often of the plastic surgery variety. Despite her mask, Rivers cannot hide from Stern's cameras and this touching documentary, while still somewhat self serving, is also a testament to how hard it is to be a living legend. (eOne)

Both films are available to rent or own now on both Blu-ray and DVD from eOne films.

Tis the Season: The Guilds

(Scroll over any film title for the full Black Sheep review.)

The Screen Actors Guild made their announcements before the year ended and now it is time for the three other major factions of the film voting community to weigh in with their choices for best film achievements of 2010. They are the Producers Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America. The producers and directors nominations are ordinarily strong indicators of what to expect when the Oscars are announced on January 25 but the writers have come under a fair amount of flack this year. Major Oscar contenders like THE KING'S SPEECH and TOY STORY 3 were not eligible because they were not affiliated with the guild during production. It is difficult to give much credit to a group that would not consider the screenplays for WINTER'S BONE, BLUE VALENTINE or ANOTHER YEAR when they are all serious Oscar contenders in their respective screenplay categories. Especially when they don't fill those voids with films like RABBIT HOLE. Meanwhile, the PGA Top 10 is another variation on the same 11 films that are being tossed around in the Best Picture race this year, with WINTER'S BONE not making the cut this time out. And the DGA favoured newcomers to the Best Direction race, Darren Aronofsky (BLACK SWAN) and David O. Russell (THE FIGHTER) over past winners, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for TRUE GRIT.

The PGA will announce its winners on January 22, in a ceremony hosted by Judd Apatow. The WGA will announce its winners on February 5, in simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York City to cater to both the Eastern and Western divisions of the guild. The DGA will announce its winner on January 29, at its 75th anniversary edition of the ceremony.

Here are the major nominees from each of the guilds ...

THE WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

BLACK SWAN

Screenplay by Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin; Story by Andres Heinz

THE FIGHTER

Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson

INCEPTION

Written by Christopher Nolan

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

Written by Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg

PLEASE GIVE

Written by Nicole Holofcener

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

127 HOURS

Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy; Based on the book Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston

I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS

Written by John Requa & Glenn Ficarra; Based on the book by Steven McVicker

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin; Based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich

THE TOWN

Screenplay by Peter Craig and Ben Affleck & Aaron Stockard; Based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan

TRUE GRIT

Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen; Based on the novel by Charles Portis

THE DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA

Darren Aronofsky

BLACK SWAN

David Fincher

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Tom Hooper

THE KING'S SPEECH

Christopher Nolan

INCEPTION

David O. Russell

THE FIGHTER

THE PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA

127 HOURS

Producers: Danny Boyle, Christian Colson

BLACK SWAN

Producers: Scott Franklin, Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver

INCEPTION

Producers: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas

THE FIGHTER

Producers: David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Mark Wahlberg

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

Producers: Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray

THE KING'S SPEECH

Producers: Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Producers: Dana Brunetti, Ceán Chaffin, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin

THE TOWN

Producers: Basil Iwanyk, Graham King

TOY STORY 3

Producer: Darla K. Anderson

TRUE GRIT

Producers: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin

SOURCES:

THE WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA

THE DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA

THE PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA

COUNTRY STRONG

Written and Directed by Shana Feste

Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Garrett Hedlund and Leighton Meester

Kelly Canter: Well, I remember that day / when our eyes first met / You ran into the building to get out of the rain 'cause you were soaking wet / And when you held the door / you wanted to know my name / Timing is everything.

There isn’t anything sadder in the world than a good country tune, except for maybe the booze-soaked, sleep-deprived, emotionally impossible days and nights that are the inspiration behind these great songs. Writer/Director Shana Feste’s COUNTRY STRONG is one of those true tragedies. One of the genre’s biggest stars falls off a Dallas stage, five months pregnant and wasted, killing her child and her spirit at the same time. A year later, she is checking out of rehab earlier than she should to return to that same stage and reclaim her career as well her own self. People are fighting, cheating and both breaking and making up, but by the time its done, everyone is crying tears into their beers.

Gwyneth Paltrow is Kelly Canter, a Faith Hill type country superstar, except with a slew of public problems. While her troubles are all very adult, her demeanor is still that of a child. Paltrow plays Canter as a little girl, lost in a big world, who would much rather be tending to a baby bird she found in a field than performing in front of thousands of screaming fans. She isn’t sober for long once her husband checks her out of rehab, as it becomes painfully clear the public is not going to let her forget her own personal hardships. She loses herself in anything and everyone she can in order to avoid her own self, until that’s all she has left - and Paltrow’s got a mess of mascara on her face most of the time to prove it.

COUNTRY STRONG, which also boasts a surprisingly strong supporting cast, culminates into a somewhat simplified commentary about celebrity and people as products. Feste pulls out every country punch she can think of, but lucky for her, Paltrow knows how to roll those punches into something real so that you too can have a silent sob in your beverage.

Tis the Season: The CAST Awards

Yesterday, the Online Film Critics Society announced THE SOCIAL NETWORK as Best Picture of 2010. Seeing as how I have asked to be a part of that society for essentially every year I've been online and and every year they reject me, I've decided not to bother reporting about them this year. (No offense to the members I actually know.) Instead, I bring you today a year end list from a group that is happy to have me - the CAST Awards. CAST stands for Cinema Appreciation Society of Toronto and the society consists of a good chunk of Toronto film bloggers who meet monthly to talk about what they love most, film. These good people, myself included, voted in two rounds and collectively have voted INCEPTION as the Best Picture of 2010. The full Top 25 is listed below and the participants are then listed below that. You can click on any links to go to their sites and/or follow them on Twitter. Thanks to James McNally of Toronto Screen Shots for organizing and compiling the whole affair.

FILM TITLE	POINTS	MENTIONS
1. Inception	411	22
2. Toy Story 3	311	20
3. Black Swan	307	16
4. Shutter Island	297	19
5. The Social Network	261	17
6. Scott Pilgrim	254	17
7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo	231	16
8. Winter’s Bone	180	11
9. I Am Love	165	9
10.The King’s Speech	149	11
11. Rubber	149	9
12. Never Let Me Go	147	11
13. Trigger	140	9
14. Fish Tank	134	9
15. Buried	134	9
16. The White Ribbon	130	7
17. True Grit	127	9
18. Chloe	124	8
19. Easy A	121	10
20. Marwencol	117	7
21. 127 Hours	115	9
22. A Prophet	114	8
23. Rabbit Hole	112	7
24. Blue Valentine	110	8
25. Heartbeats	110	7

Participants:

• Joseph Belanger (@blacksheeprevs)
• Robert Bell
• Jay Clarke (@Horror_Section)
• Polly Esther
• Katarina Gligorijevic (@katarinag
• Sarah Gopaul (@)
• Kurt Halfyard (@triflic)
• Philip Hamilton
• Robert Harding
• Leora Heilbronn (@leoraheilbronn)
• Rick Iwasa (@tifftalk)
• Sasha James (@finalgirlproj)
• Jay Kerr (@bombippy)
• Mike Lippert
• Chris Magee
• James McNally (@toscreenshots)
• Ryan McNeil
• Andrew Parker (@andrewjparker)
• Elliott Pen (@tootighttoque)
• Matthew Price (@mattmovies)
• Kiva Reardon (@kiva_jane)
• Shannon Ridler
• Shelagh Rowan-Legg (@dorkshelf)
• Marc Saint-Cyr
• Courtney Small
• Brooke Smith
• Ian Stuart
• Bob Turnbull
• Donna @TOfilmfest (@TOfilmfest)
• Greg @TOfilmfest (@TOfilmfest)
• Jeff Wright (@jeffreyjeffrey)

Source: Toronto Screen Shots