Live Blogging the 85th Oscars

Tonight, Never Mind Pop Film is blogging the Oscars live.

The big talk of the 85th Academy Awards will definitely be whether Argo continues to steamroll into a write-in win for Best Director. Daniel Day-Lewis could make history tonight if he wins Lead Actor for the third time. Also looking to make history is Amour actress Emmanuelle Riva who is poised to become the oldest winner for Best Actress, but in order to so she will have to fend off Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain. The big question tonight will be what wins Best Picture (the last four years, the winner was a given going into the evening, but tonight is a toss-up).

Tonight is my first attempt at doing this, so here goes nothing...

Seth MacFarlane is doing well thus far. He already made Tommy Lee Jones laugh. Still, taking no prisoners.

And there goes his goodwill...

Captain Kirk! Where was he when James Franco co-hosted?

So no Muppets version of Flight then? Bummer.

Best Supporting Actor

Christoph Waltz

Cool! Nice to see that the Academy doesn't make a big deal about winning recently.

Best Animated Short

Paperman

Best Animated Feature

Brave

"So you got nominated for something a 9 year old can do?"

The Avengers assemble to not piss of Samuel L. Jackson.

Best Cinematography

Life of Pi

Best Visual Effects

Life of Pi

That cut-off was a little harsh. Congratulations on the Life of Pi team and Rhythm and Hues anyway.

Best Costume Design

Anna Karenina

Best Make-Up and Hairstyling

Les Miserables

Skyfall wasn't nominated for Best Picture, but here's the attention Bond deserves.

Best Live Action Short

Curfew

Best Documentary Short

Inocente

Any films plugged with Liam Neeson's voice has an excellent chance to win.

"When the Levee Breaks". Best song ever, yes?

Best Documentary Feature

Searching for Sugar Man

Best Foreign Film

Amour

I don't think anyone anticipated the director of Funny Games would win an Oscar for a romance.

Thank you, John Travolta, keep on dancing.

Damn, Jennifer Hudson. Just damn. I feel bad that Les Miserables has to follow her performance.

Best Sound Mixng

Les Miserables

Best Sound Editing

Zero Dark Thirty/Skyfall

Where are the Von Trapps! Well done, MacFarlane, well done.

Best Supporting Actress

Anne Hathaway

Best Editing

Argo

Argo's first win of the evening, Les Mis and Life of Pi lead the pack with two each thus far.

I always wondered where winners put their Oscars for the rest of the show. Thanks, Christoph Waltz.

Best Production Design

Lincoln

There's Lincoln's first win for the night.

D.A. Pennebaker, you rock.

A nicely done In Memoriam.

Best Score

Life of Pi

Life of Pi pulls ahead with 3, is an upset coming with director and picture?

Best Original Song

Adele - Skyfall

Best Original Screenplay

Quentin Tarantino - Django Unchained

Best Adapted Screenplay

Chris Terrio - Argo

Best Picture rarely wins without screenplay. Will the Argo train continue?

I really thought that the Academy wouldn't touch the script for Django Unchained with a ten foot pole. Too much controversy didn't bother them apparently.

Best Director

Ang Lee - Life of Pi

Keeping my fingers crossed that picking Life of Pi as Best Picture pans out. Ang Lee looks psyched.

Best Actress

Jennifer Lawrence

Grace under pressure, she earned that Oscar.

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis

Such an amazing lineup for Best Actor, there is literally no way they could go wrong. Meryl Streep didn't even need to look.

That's a record, congratulations, Mr. Day-Lewis, even if you were second choice behind Streep.

Best Picture

Argo

And let the conspiracy theories about George Clooney and the White House begin.

That's a night folks, drive safe and enjoy everything the movies have to offer in 2013!

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Thoughts on 'Les Miserables'

(this post comes from NMPF reader "Optimus Blimey")

One of the perks of being a Californian is that there is never a shortage of screenings for films that are sure to earn a great deal of buzz. I was just lucky enough to be one of a few hundred to attend Tom Hooper's adaptation of Les Miserables.

Officially, this isn't a review, just some thoughts as a favor to Colin.

Hugh Jackman, despite his hulking badassdom was born to play this part. Jean Valjean requires gravitas and Jackman has it in spades. His past performances on Broadway hint at his talents, but his scenes are some of the most exquisite I have seen in a musical.

Anne Hathaway similarly is awesome as Fantine. Hathaway must have been practicing for ages because every note she renders is bliss. I know that Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence are touted as the winners for Best Actress this year, but my gut tells me it should be Hathaway. Who is she supporting? But her time onscreen will only allow for Supporting Actress.

Russell Crowe, Eddie Redmayne and Amanda Seyfried don't pan out as well, unfortunately. While close-up, uninterrupted takes of singing onset work for Jackman and Hathaway, the effect is lost with these three. Crowe looks the part of Javert, yet his comfort level goes out the window when the music swells. One of the key functions of Les Miserables is the romance between Cosette and Marius, but it just doesn't work with these two though they give it their damndest.

As for the look of the film, director Tom Hooper is as fond of dutch angles as ever. Other than that, the feeling is right and the lighting works wonders.

So there it is!

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Review: The Long Goodbye (The Dark Knight Rises)

"Because he's not the hero we need right now, but he's the one we deserve."

Eight years have passed since Gotham last needed Batman. Without the ornaments and implements of Batman, Bruce Wayne rings hollow. When we last left the Dark Knight he was on the run from the police and held in contempt by virtually all of Gotham. Shouldering the weight of Harvey Dent's crimes and suffering the loss of Rachel, he is in his own personal hell. Any semblance of a normal life ended with a sick joke and a cleansing burn.

Gotham itself is also in a transitional phase. The dark, transient city from Batman Begins was melded into a shiny metropolis for The Dark Knight and now is waiting to be torn apart in Rises. The have-nots have dragged on for far too long and now the socialites are ticking down the seconds before the doors burst open.

What Christopher Nolan does with this Batman trilogy is take a mirror and—under the guise of being only a comic book movie—holds it up to society and forces us to look. By grounding Gotham in Pittsburgh the audience cannot pretend this was a piece of fiction, this is a living, breathing organism that is suffocating in corruption. We don't have to look very far to see the resemblance. Bruce has no trouble comprehending what has happened to his city and, in his shame, has retreated to Wayne Manor.

Still, Bruce, with all of his high-tech-wizardry, is just a boy in a cowl looking for his parents. He is made of flesh and blood and he can be broken. Which is what make Bane (a very fearsome Tom Hardy) such a fearsome opponent. It would be impossible for any villain to surpass the peaks Heath Ledger climbed as the Joker, yet the Joker never really presented any physical challenge. Tom Hardy's Bane is frightening, stomachs clench when he appears onscreen. In political terms, the Joker was nothing more than a theorist with a bad sense of humor—Bane is a terrorist. More importantly, a terrorist with a plan. Everything will change in this madman's eyes. We will all fall.

Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne/Batman has been the most definitive take on the character offered on film. The only other real competition for that mantle is Michael Keaton. Keaton's Batman was fine enough, but he was stranded when it came to mining depth out of his character. What Bale has done is elevated the status of a once campy t.v. idol and made it real. Bruce's life is formed through his parents being taken from him violently. Yes, he has dark periods, but Batman is his solution. Batman is not a costume he puts on, he is the instinctual urge that Bruce constantly represses. He no longer has a choice in the matter. Batman has been labeled a public enemy, so in the shadows of Wayne Manor he must remain.

In Harvey Dent, the once bright beacon of hope, we saw a slide into darkness that would have destroyed Gotham. His memory has been manipulated into creating a police state aided by a police commissioner plagued by the lie of the past. Gary Oldman's Commissioner Gordon has been overlooked as far as characters go. He is the heart of Gotham that Batman can never be. Amongst the corruption that had infiltrated the city, he tried to remain steadfast.

However, both Dent and Gordon fell, only Bruce can be what Gotham truly needs. He knows that sacrifice must mean something and his promise to his parents must mean something. Batman must come back, if only for people like John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who believe in what Batman stood for. His mettle will be tested in combating Bane and he must do so with an undependable ally in Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway, surprising no one in spectacular, femme fatale fashion).

Christopher Nolan was up to the arduous task of following up one of the greatest films of recent history, and he didn't disappoint. He faced questions about casting Anne Hathaway and she turned in one of the most spectacular female characters in comic book film history. In making a third film he had to surpass expectations and avoid the pitfalls of the trilogy letdown.

The director not only managed to avoid the pitfall, he tore the genre-layout to shreds and, now, he can lay claim to one of the greatest trilogies of all-time. A better finish could not have been asked for. What impresses most is that Mr. Nolan manages to tear Bruce/Batman out of the stasis that his left the character without closure for almost a hundred years. By not rigidly adhering to what stories have come before, we are treated to something much more.

***1/2 out of ****

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Watch the Very Baity 'Les Miserables' Trailer

And the winner of multiple Oscars is...

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Final 'Dark Knight Rises' Theatrical Trailer

As pathetic as this sounds, I can't bring myself to watch the trailer before seeing it on the big screen along with The Avengers on Friday. Enjoy!

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Entertainment Weekly Cover Highlights Catwoman's Practical Costume

So Christian Bale is upset that his costume for The Dark Knight Rises isn't as revealing as Anne Hathaway's. I don't blame him, it's hard to judge his physique accordingly. By the way, curious placement of the "100 new films" banner. Maybe it's hiding the "some sensuality" element of The Dark Knight Rises' rating.

(Courtesy: EW)

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