Loved Foxcatcher and Seeing Channing Tatum Wrestle!

Last year, when the Oscars gave the movie Foxcatcher five nominations, I had no idea what the movie was about and why a comedian like Steve Carrel, was able to snag a Best Actor nomination in a very crowded category.

Anyway, this movie's DVD has been on my desk for months now, so I finally popped it in last night to see what the fuss was all about.

OMG! This is probably one of the best psychological true crime dramas that I've seen in a long while and my psychologist friends like Eden Tamayoshould have a field day analyzing the different relationships between the characters and power structures they find themselves in.

Well, one good reason to watch this movie is just to see how f******ly sexy and hot Channing Tatum is! He plays a wrestler in this movie and just watching him almost with no clothes, wrestling with another guy, with almost clothes, is definitely worth the movie ticket price LOL I should've watched this on a theater big screen!

Seriously though, the movie is a very sad story and I was moved because I am always moved when the nicest character in a movie or a TV show is the one that gets the short shrift.

This is not a gay movie and there isn't much published research that says that the main antagonist in this movie was homosexual, but any practicing homosexual can see easily what the character of Steve Carrell wants to achieve. It is the same thing that many gay men do when they see delicious, poor, and out-of-luck men with a body like Channing Tatum.

They take advantage of the situation and do a power trip. Some scenes in the movie show how this happens but they don't explicitly show any gay activity but for gay men who may see it, "alam na" would be the appropriate phrase that they would certainly use.

The director of the movie, Bennett Miller, has been very cautious and very subtle about this treatment and just lets the audience draw their own private conclusions.

Mark Ruffalo, who is nominated this year for a Best Supporting Actor nod for Spotlight, was also nominated for the same category in this movie. This guy SHOULD win an Oscar soon. He's just so effective in delivering the right dose of emotion to the character he's playing, I admit I was in tears at the end of the movie! Mark draws you in to love his character and then bang - the shit hits the fan.

While Jim Carrey a decade ago failed to win Oscar's vote when he turned to dramatic roles, Steve Carrell has been more successful. He's almost unrecognizable - and unlike his many successful comedies - you'd revile his character in this movie.

Like many ordinary people, I have always been fascinated by the frivolities and eccentricities of the obscenely wealthy.

This movie will show you what an emotionally and sexually stunted and physically unappealing human being, with so much wealth at his disposal, can do to hapless mortals like us.

Giddy Eddie Redmayne Was A Refreshing Sight to See!

Who would've thought that the guy who seduced Marilyn Monroe (onscreen lang guys) a few years ago, would win an Oscar a few years later!

Buti na lang Eddie Redmayne won for The Theory of Everything.  At least, when the movie screens here in Manila this Wednesday, I won't be watching in an empty theater - like Birdman, Whiplash, The Imitation Game, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Wild.  The Oscar taste this year has really veered away from what most Filipinos like to see.  Or Americans for that matter.  (No Titanic or Avatar crowd-pleasers this year.)

Anyway, Eddie looked so cute when he acted so giddy holding his Oscar. He probably had the most refreshing and most honest reaction among the four thespians who won today - and even if  he's a Brit - who are very good at being poker faced - he couldn't hold back his excitement - which was great to see!  Yun lang, by winning so young, he and Jennifer Lawrence might wait till their 60s before the Oscars give them another statue.  Or not!!

Fine Win for Alejandro!

OMG! Second year in a row that a Mexican wins the Best Director award, and the films they've made do not even have anything to do with Mexico!  Just shows to you how globalized the film industry has become!  

Last year, Alfonso Cuaron won for Gravity, which was a breathtaking film in space, while this year, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu won for Birdman, which is about a has-been box-office actor trying to prove he's really an actor, by doing a difficult play in Broadway!

Inarritu's film canon is also one of my favorites, from Babel to 21 Grams to Amores Perros - this guy has done an amazing range of films that to win an Oscar for a dark comedy, does not even paint a picture of how good he can be at any genre.  

Loved his acceptance speech as well, for Best Picture.  I really hope in the future, Filipino-Americans can take the cue and excel as well on film!

Surprised But Happy to See Rita Ora in the Oscars!

T'was fun to see Rita Ora perform at this year's Oscars!  I love doing Body Jam, a Les Mills exercise, and Rita Ora has sung some of the best tracks from that exercise.  I realized only now that the song she sung was written by the great Dianne Warren pala and Rita got to sing the song. It's great as well to see Dianne get nominated again in this category!  Lucky girl ha, to be able to perform at the Oscars at a young age.  Many singers never get that opportunity!

Patricia Arquette: My Favorite TV Psychic Wins an Oscar

Actually, I was nervous for Patricia Arquette, because just like JK Simmons, they practically swept most of the awards this season, but the Oscars can be unpredictable sometimes.  Not this year though, thank God!  Patricia Arquette is one of my favorite actresses in Hollywood, me being a big fan of her TV show, Medium​!  Finally, my favorite psychic wins an Oscar!

Bradley Cooper: My Choice For Best Actor

As I am writing this, the Best Actor award has not yet been announced but Bradley Cooper is my choice for this category.  I just think he played the role with such respect for Chris Kyle - and it does help that he looked so sexy and hot as a borta guy! Not an easy feat, like yeah!  He also looked so dashing at the Oscars red carpet!

Poland Wins An Oscar and A Brave Prediction for Filipino filmmakers

I bravely predict that a Filipino would get an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language film in the next ten years!  Maybe even win it!  We have so many brave and innovative filmmakers right now and Lav Diaz almost made the cut this year!  He was nominated pala sa Independent Spirit Awards (for the same category) with fellow Oscar winner from Poland, Ida.  That's a very big step, I just hope our local nominating committee unites instead of fights amongst themselves in supporting our bet.

Yes, Poland, won it this year and it's about a nun who finds out that she was adopted and was Jewish pala and that her parents were murdered because of their heritage.  Well, with Hollywood ruled by the Jews, you can't go wrong!

Emma Stone Gets An A for Birdman!

I loved her in The Easy A, which should've gotten her an Oscar nomination (I wish!) but no surprise that she got her first Oscar nomination playing a druggie (one of the easiest ways to get a nomination).  Although, I would've voted for Naomi Watts in place of her, but that's just me  Anyway, I think the Academy nominated her for this one great scene where she lashes out at her Dad, played by Michael Keaton. 

Adam Levine: Mi Papi Sings in the Oscars

Kumanta na po si Papa, and the song is for another movie, no one in Manila saw, as usual, ilan lang kami sa theater, when I watched Begin Again, last year. I watched it because Keira Knightley was there - yun pala - it was about songwriters. Lost Stars is the song I would've voted if I were an Oscar voter because I believe it's the song that really encapsulated what the movie was all about - but Selma has a Best Picture nomination, so it has an edge.

JK Simmons and that Lovely Acceptance Speech

It's sad that when I watched Whiplash last year in Robinson's Galleria, we were only a few people in the theater, because it's a beautiful, a bit brutal, movie about artists, and the tough process they go through to achieve perfection - and to entertain people like us - who are not entertainers. And I feared that I had teachers as tough as the guy JK Simmons play in the movie - but they do shape you into the perfect person you can ever be - at least in the craft you chose.

By the way, JK gave such a beautiful acceptance speech!  Call your parents, kids! 

Reese Witherspoon Cool in Wild!

To fans of Reese Witherspoon, she's barely recognizable in Wild, the film she's nominated in.  How could our lovable perky blonde of the Legally Blonde franchise now do drugs, and go totally nude and be so unappealing, you can actually sense how bad her character smells as she treks the Pacific Northwest!  Well, it's a showy role and an assured Oscar nomination, if played perfectly.  Guess Reese did just play the role right..

Getting to Love Benedict Cumberbatch!

I admit it took some time for me to warm up to Benedict Cumberbatch. I first noticed him as he played this short scene in Atonement - a role where he was a real a**hole. I haven't even seen him as Sherlock Holmes who is my most favorite character in literature!

However, he blew me away in The Imitation Game! He played Alan Turing with such dignity and respect (to the guy) that any actor playing a gay man should watch how he does it. Alan Turing was also a genius and eccentric so to combine all that characteristics without making it look like a caricature is a mean feat!

Julianne Moore: Should Be Your Time to Shine Girl!

My most favorite Julianne Moore scene was when she was, playing a porn star, being f***ed by Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights. She had that dazed, "oooohhh I'm enjoying it" look! Just that scene alone should've gotten her an Oscar but the stars had other plans.

Four nominations later, the industry says it's about time she gets her first statue.
Realistically, Julianne Moore could be the only other actress (maybe Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence as well) who can get as many Oscar nominations for acting as the living legend, Meryl Streep. She already has five and Meryl has 19 (and counting).

Getting to Know Felicity Jones

I don't know much about Felicity Jones but I'll be able to see her movie this Wednesday as The Theory of Everything is going to be shown in the Ayala Cinemas.  I'm sure she did a great job because the competition this year was very tight that even one of Hollywood's A-list stars, Jennifer Aniston, failed to make the cut.  And it's a leading role as well, so we should see her have the same amount of screen time as Eddie Redmayne!

Rosamund Pike Carries the Flag for Gone Girl!

Yey! Carrying the banner for my personal Best Picture of 2014, Gone Girl, Rosamund Pike got the only Oscar nom for that movie - not even a screenplay nomination - although the adapted screenplay category this year is pretty crowded and tough!  

It's also strange that the guy she bastardizes in the movie is the Oscar host this year!  Actually if you watch the uncut version of the movie and 'that scene' you'd go like, 'Was that his......."