83’rd Oscar Predictions

From the psychosexual tension of Black Swan to the mind bending panache of Inception, 2010 was fraught with new takes on some old concepts. Tomorrow night the gold statuettes at the 83’rd Academy Awards will be handed out and the winners and losers of millions of office pools around the country will be determined. Throwing one more hat into the pile, here’s our suggestions for who we think deserves the wins and who we think will actually get them.

Best Supporting Actor

Who should win: Christian Bale

Who will will: Christian Bale: Dick “Dicky” Eklund in “The Fighter”

In 2004, Christian Bale lost sixty-three pounds for his role in the Machinist. He achieved the feat with a self prescribed diet of consuming just one apple and a cup of coffee a day for weeks. In the Fighter, Bale once again becomes emaciated to play the part of Dicky Eklund, the drug addicted half brother of “Irish” Micky Ward. Like most of his roles he plays the part with an intensity unmatched and a detail far beyond mimicry. The depths Bale will go to to portray a character is no more clearer than it is here and that makes him deserving of the award. No other contender in the category even matches his dedication.

Best Actress

Who should win: Natalie Portman

Who will win: Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers in “Black Swan”

Natalie Portman was a great actress when she made her film debut at the age of 13 in Luc Besson’s Leon. Seventeen years later with several more credits to her name she’s continued her on screen presence with her killer performance as Nina Sayers in Black Swan. A famous vegan, Portman stuck to her diet while working out and training for 5-6 hours a day for a year in preparation for the role. The intense shoot, which rarely consisted of ballet doubles for her scenes shows an actress similar to her character; determined to get the recognition she deserves.

Best Picture

Who should win: A Tie. The Fighter or The Social Network

Who will win: The Social Network

Other nominee The King’s Speech has been gaining lots of traction in the race the last couple of weeks but our vote still goes to David Fincher’s The Social Network. No other film on this list aside from this one is a perfect snapshot of our current times. The Best Picture is usually handed out to the movie that will be reflected on in years to come and no other movie succeeds in that way other than the “Facebook” movie. Whether we like it or not, Facebook has become a revolutionarily widely used internet tool across the planet. The founding of it just happens to be an incredibly well made movie detailing it.

Best Supporting Actress

Who should win: Another tie. Both Melissa Leo and Amy Adams are deserving of the award for their work in “The Fighter”.

Who will win: Melissa Leo as Alice Ward in “The Fighter”

Melissa Leo’s transformation as the money hungry mother of her up and coming son in the Fighter is deserving of praise. She’s been around for years and her only major recognition was in her work for 2008’sFrozen River. She nails down the enabling, argumentative and downright trashy mom of Micky Ward so perfectly.

Best Director

Who should win: Darren Aranofsky

Who will win: David Fincher

Darren Aranofsky has been making great films and getting the best out of his actors ever since his black and white indie debut Pi. But rarely does the winner for Best Picture not also nab the best directing award as well. David Fincher is that man, a perfectionist through and through who wants the very best from everyone he works with. The opening bar scene took 95 takes to complete and he was fervent in the film’s accuracy. He didn’t get anything for Zodiac, now is his time.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Who should win: The Social Network

Who will win: Aaron Sorkin’s script for The Social Network

Aaron Sorkin is already a screenwriting legend with more classic lines to his name than all of the other nominees combined. His trademark rapid dialogue had viewers sucked in within the first few minutes and it didn’t let up until the credits rolled. You want the truth? This award is Sorkin’s.

Best Original Screenplay

Who should win: The Fighter

Who will win: The King’s Speech

Best Cinematography

Who should win: Black Swan

Who will win: Matthew Libatique for his work on “Black Swan”

Both Inception and the Social Network were well shot films but nothing on this list was as beautiful to look at as the stunning shots that Black Swan put on screen. The closing ballet scene puts this a notch above alone.

Best Film Editing

Who should and will win: The Social Network

Best Animated Feature

Who should and will win: Toy Story 3

C’mon, it’s Pixar!

Best Costume Design

Who will and should win: Alice in Wonderland

Best Visual Effects

Who should and will win: Inception

Best Sound Mixing

Who should and will win: Inception

Best Sound Editing

Who should and will win: Inception

Best Music (Original Score)

Who should and will win: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for “The Social Network”

*Note: The Best Actor category was omitted because I hadn’t seen all of the nominees and therefore couldn’t give an opinion.

Written By: K.J. Bulai

Rumor: iPad Moves 50K Units in 2 Hours

The undying hype for Apple’s newest, coolest gadget only got bigger today when pre-orders were finally opened for everyone in the U.S. According to one report, two orders placed 30 minutes apart this morning resulted in Order ID numbers approximately 10,000 apart, suggesting a rate somewhere near 20,000 orders per hour if they are issued sequentially as they appear to be. There are problems with these numbers, as not everyone has paid in full yet, nor have they counted the people who didn’t pre-order through Apple’s site. Regardless, with the rabid fanbase they’ve acquired for all of their devices thus far (many of whom camped out for the iPhone upon its release) these initial numbers aren’t too shocking. Whether the iPad will hold up in the long run is to be seen. The device ships out on April 3’rd.

via Mac Rumors

Avatar Returns?

With its wildly successful theatrical run nearing its end, will Avatar be re-released in the summer? Possibly. At a Gabelli & Co investor’s conference IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond said that Cameron had about 40 minutes of additional material that didn’t make the theatrical cut. He also predicted a rerelease, which he said probably would occur in the fall. Seeing as how the film has long been a sell-out at Imax theaters across the world, this wouldn’t be too surprising. To date Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time with around $2.6 billion worldwide. The 2-D release of the movie on DVD is set for Earth day next month on April 22’nd.

via Source

Lady GaGa Releases Telephone

It appears as if the more normal the setting, the crazier it is with GaGa as she parades in fishnet stockings around a prison in her new video for Telephone. Once again displaying her many eccentricities and then some, she teams up with Beyonce and the PW from Kill Bill to spread some camp. Sunglasses with cigarettes for lenses? Numerous costume changes and about as much sex for shock as Madonna did in the eighties? Check, check and yeah. You can see the NSFW video here:

Music Corner: Uffie

Uffie, the 22 year old indie musician who Ke$ha is often cited as “shamelessly ripping off” has dropped a killer single with the potential to be a huge club hit. An addictive beat mixed with Uffie’s hipster witticism combines to form the track MC’s Can Kiss.

You can hear it here:

Her debut album Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans drops some time this spring.
More songs can heard on Uffie\’s Myspace

-KB-

Carrie Underwood on Sesame Street

See that little squiggly, [maybe] weirdly shaped worm in the above video? It’s American Idol season four winner Carrie Underwood making a guest appearance on Sesame Street. She’ll first appear this Thursday with more appearances on March 17, April 8 and April 26. She may have lost to Taylor Swift at the Grammy’s this year but she makes up for that by performing as a puppet.

Will This Be the End of Heroes?

After a spectacular first season back in 2006, NBC’s hit Heroes has been met with nothing but rocky criticism since. Season two was panned for slowing down too quickly, season three for just being plain awful and four, well four is actually being well received right now.

Though fans and critics alike have been pleased with the show getting back on pace this season, the ratings tell a different story. The season four finale only managed to capture 4.41 million viewers. Compared to the first season’s 13.48, that is quite the drop. With ratings on a steady decline each episode until this finale, the question mark still remains as to whether or not the show will be brought back. Based on budget, casting and effects? The show would have to be considerably cut to match those viewership ratings. Based on other shows with similar ratings like Sarah Connor Chronicles, not a chance being that low.

Heroes had its run, whether it should’ve stopped earlier or not…is of your own opinion.

A Laverne & Shirley Movie?

Though director Garry Marshall’s newest flick Valentine’s Day doesn’t hit theaters until this Friday, he’s already sharing his thoughts on a possible screen adaptation of the classic 76′-83 Laverne & Shirley tv series he helped create. The stars? None other then Jennifer Garner and Jessica Biel, who in addition to co-starring in VD have also struck up quite the friendship off set as well. They both got chummy in the photos for this month’s issue of Marie Claire and have said they’re both game for the parts. As of now it’s just speculation, but with their comedic timing and Marshall on board it will definitely be entertaining.

Today, Google Buzzes

Today Google unveiled a new addition to its already growing platform of internet applications: Google Buzz. The app, (which is added within your G-Mail account) is set to take on the likes of Twitter and Facebook status updates with a slightly more sophisticated edge. Some of the key features differentiating it from the other services include:

• Automatic friends lists (friends are added automatically who you have emailed on Gmail)
• “Rich fast sharing” which combines sources like Picasa and Twitter into a single feed, it also includes full-sized photo browsing
• Public and private sharing (Allowing you to swap between family and friends)
• Inbox integration (instead of emailing you with updates like Facebook, Buzz features emails that update immediately with all Buzz thread content, like the photo viewer mentioned above)
• “Recommended Buzz” puts friend-of-friend content into your stream, even if you’re not acquainted. Recommendations learn over time with your feedback.

The app is already available and should be showing up right below where it says “Inbox” in your G-Mail account. Of course, it also works on cell phones so if you’re an iPhone user, look for it in the browser.

Via Gizmodo

Here’s a video from Google Explaining the service (It brings to mind the Twitter introduction video)

The Who Rocked The Superbowl

Even though they’ve gotten older, the Who were still able to maintain the same rock spirit they’ve always had. This year’s superbowl wasn’t just entertaining on the field (with a second half that saw New Orleans really up their game) but with a half time show that had a mix of four of the Who’s biggest hits. You can check out the full performance below.