If there was ever an appropriate time for me to start thinking out loud, tonight would be the answer. Besides resting my head and watching old flicks to put me into the mood of things, or worrying about what tomorrow might bring to the table, I am casting some speculative thoughts on the various film categories for the Golden Globes Awards. Though there are still a number of outstanding films yet to be seen (here I am overcoming the temptations of online screeners), I do have some fuzzy ideas on who might go home with the Globes. However, I can say with the highest degree of certainty that my predictions would be absolutely wrong on every front if I had resort to my whims and spell out my favorites. So below are tonight's picks for tomorrow's game:
HFPA 72nd Golden Globe Awards Predictions: Best Motion Picture (Drama): “Boyhood” Best Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical): “Birdman” Best Director: Richard Linklater, “Boyhood” Best Actor (Drama): Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything” Best Actor (Comedy/Musical): Michael Keaton, “Birdman” Best Actress (Drama): Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl” Best Actress (Comedy/Musical): Emily Blunt, “Into The Woods” Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash” Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood” Best Screenplay: Alejandro González Iñárritu, et al., “Birdman” Best Original Score: Alexandre Desplat, “The Imitation Game” Best Original Song: Lorde, “The Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 1” Best Foreign Language Film: “Force Majeure” Best Animated Feature Film: “Big Hero 6”
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Here's a list of alternate predictions (just because): Best Motion Picture (Drama): “Selma” Best Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical): “The Grand Budapest Hotel” Best Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu, “Birdman" Best Actor (Drama): Steve Carell, “Foxcatcher” Best Actor (Comedy/Musical): Ralph Fiennes, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” Best Actress (Drama): Julianne Moore, “Still Alice” Best Actress (Comedy/Musical): Helen Mirren, “The 100 Foot Journey” Best Supporting Actor: Edward Norton, “Birdman” Best Supporting Actress: Meryl Streep, “Into The Woods” Best Screenplay: Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” Best Original Score: Jóhann Jóhannsson, “The Theory of Everything” Best Original Song: “Selma” Best Foreign Language Film: “Ida” Best Animated Feature Film: “The Lego Movie”
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The Winners (correct alternative guesses in green, incorrect guesses in red): Best Motion Picture (Drama): “Boyhood” Best Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical): “The Grand Budapest Hotel” Best Director: Richard Linklater, “Boyhood” Best Actor (Drama): Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything” Best Actor (Comedy/Musical):Michael Keaton, “Birdman” Best Actress (Drama): Julianne Moore, “Still Alice” Best Actress (Comedy/Musical): Amy Adams, “Big Eyes” Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash” Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood” Best Screenplay: Alejandro González Iñárritu, et al., “Birdman” Best Original Score: Jóhann Jóhannsson, “The Theory of Everything” Best Original Song: John Legend, “Selma” Best Foreign Language Film Film: “Leviathan” Best Animated Feature Film: “How To Train Your Dragon 2”
I am rooting for Into The Woods (sorry the silly pun) to be recognised for Best Motion Picture Musical / Comedy. I am a sucker for well made stage-to-screen adaptations. But Birdman's win would not upset me if it goes the other way, since both films fall under the realm of "theatrics". So did The Grand Budapest Hotel. But Gone Girl's snub in the Best Drama category is still beyond me. Also, I want Steve Carell to win. I'll wait with bated breadth.
So truth be told, I am actually using this abandoned space as an opportunity to write something because I have not been penning my thoughts for the past one year, and the fact that I am paying for this site (even if it remains to be seen as a wasteland) just increased that determination up to about 85%. Although there is nothing in particular that I want to pen down, I just told myself to write anyways. So type, I must. And there is no time more significant than now to start talking about 2014 in films and everything else that transpires in between.
One word to sum it up: BOLD.
I have exceeded the initial target of watching 300 movies last year, recording a grand total of 445 (click here for full review), consequently placing me as that perfect example of "a man without a meaningful purpose". But on the contrary, it was a truly exhilarating cinematic journey, where I shared the joys and agonies of experiencing visual narratives with my loving partner and friends, learning a thing or two in so doing. If anything else, last year has been one of surprises, in which the tales of absolutes and resets became recurring themes, not to mention the memorable side-splitting portraitures of crazy men and women, who graced the silver screens, be the talks of town. The actions occured, but they don’t fade into oblivion. Dialogues have been exchanged and they transpose to become quotes for afterthoughts. Striking pictures kept on reeling and there were many to be recalled. So now in summary, I would like to jot in quick succession, a list that charts ten of the most memorable images that would somewhat earmark 2014's journey. These were Cinematic Images conjured and binded to specific stories and timelines, resonating long enough to be marked for posterity.
But before we get to the crux, I must confess that this list is defective to a small extend. It would have been a much better one if I had watched Birdman (lensed by Gravity's Academy Award winner Emmanuel Lubezki), Whiplash (shot by Sharone Meir) and Into The Woods (perhaps Dion Beebe's best cinematography since Chicago, just by looking at the trailers alone). These are for me just some of the most anticipated films of 2014. Alas it was not meant to be because Singapore can be a pain-in-the-ass when it comes to release dates, plus movie screeners are relatively hard to get hold nowadays. Another thing to note is that some of these images are actually CGI-laden which were pre-vised on the onset, but that didn't take away the awe when viewed in the darkened theatre (and especially so on an IMAX!). Be it those painterly scenes from Mr Turner or the HALO parachuting down the skies in Godzilla, these images speak volumes of film and subsequently remind us of the powers of visual that transgress words.
Let the pictures speak for itself...
Images and imageries aside, 2014 was full of memorable events, as I cast some future plans in stone. The specification of such events shall be kept in full secrecy for the moment, but as eager as I am to put words into actions, every step that I take must be precisely calculated. May all be well.
