TWIN CITIES LIVE--May 14, 2014

TWIN CITIES LIVE
May 14, 2014

It was another wonderful day on Twin Cities Live! Today's picks are the Seth Rogen and Zac Efron flick Neighbors and my choice for the home release is Her. Click below for the links to those movies.

1. Neighbors, starring Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, and Dave Franco
2. Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, and Amy Adams

Enjoy!



video courtesy of Twin Cities Live/KSTP

THE 86th ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS

THE 86th ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS

BEST PICTURE

12 YEARS A SLAVE

BEST DIRECTOR

Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity

BEST ACTOR

Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

The Great Beauty, Italy

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

John Ridley, 12 Years a Slave

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Spike Jonze, Her

BEST ANIMATED FILM

Frozen

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Catherine Martin and Beverly Dunn, The Great Gatsby

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Emmanuel Lubezki, Gravity

BEST SOUND MIXING

Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, and Chris Munro, Gravity

BEST SOUND EDITING

Glenn Freemantle, Gravity

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Steven Price, Gravity

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

"Let It Go", Frozen

Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Catherine Martin, The Great Gatsby

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

20 Feet from Stardom

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

The Lady In Number 6: Music Saved My Life

BEST FILM EDITING

Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger, Gravity

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Adruitha Lee, Robin Mathews, Dallas Buyers Club

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Mr. Hublot

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

Helium

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Timothy Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, and Neil Corbould, Gravity

I don't think there were too many surprises from last night. My final outcome on predictions was 19 out of 24, which wasn't too bad. I should have stuck to my initial guesses on Best Picture and Best Costume Design, but I thought I would throw out some surprises. 20 Feet from Stardom took the award home for Best Documentary when many thought The Act of Killing had it in the bag. Ellen Degeneres completely nailed the opening monologue and brought an informal approach to her hosting duties, often times delivering bits from the audience. The selfie that broke Twitter was a fantastic idea and takes a bit of the stuffiness out of the room. I'm sure there will be some curmudgeons that will balk at her casual ways, but I found it entertaining. I will say that some of the bits took too long. The Oscars are always far longer than they need to be. I read many negative comments regarding some of the performances. I really enjoyed Bette Midler, Pink, and Idina Menzel. My biggest beef of the evening came with one of their presenters. Can I just throw it out there that John Travolta should not present again? Why does he always have to present one of the Best Song nominees? He completely butchered Idina Menzel's name. Don't they have rehearsals and pronunciation cards or something to ensure names are pronounced correctly? Travolta and his hair piece were two of the lowest moments of the evening. Some highlights of the evening include Jared Leto, Lupita Nyong'o and Cate Blachett who had wonderful and inspiring speeches. While Gravity took home the most with seven wins, 12 Years a Slave took home the final award for Best Picture.

AND THE OSCAR FOR BEST ORIGINAL SONG GOES TO...

AND THE OSCAR FOR BEST ORIGINAL SONG GOES TO...

Here are the nominees for best original song from a motion picture.

"Happy" from DESPICABLE ME 2
Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams
performed by: Pharrell



"Let It Go" from FROZEN
Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
performed by: Idina Menzel



"The Moon Song" from HER
Music by Karen O
Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze
Performed by: Karen O



"Ordinary Love" from MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM
Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen
Lyric by Paul Hewson
performed by: U2



You may notice that this category is one nominee short of its usual five nominees. When the nominations were announced, heads turned in disbelief when "Alone Yet Not Alone" from the film of same name was nominated. Most people had never heard of this song or movie due to an extremely limited release, so how did it stand out and get nominated? The Academy decided to disqualify the song and pull the nomination after finding that composer Bruce Broughton, who is a current member of the music branch, emailed and promoted the song to voters outside of the rules and regulations regarding campaigning for a nomination.

Which one of these four great songs will win? My vote is going toward "Let It Go" from Frozen. The movie was a massive hit for Disney and the song has had just as big of an impact as the movie did. There are countless YouTube videos and Buzzfeed pages devoted to it with many young fans singing their versions of it. I am so happy to hear that powerhouse Idina Menzel will sing it live during the ceremony. I think the only song that could come in its way is "Ordinary Love" by U2. They are gaining a little momentum after their Golden Globe win and acoustic performance on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon".

Who would you like to win? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

DEAR READERS

DEAR READERS,

This weekend brings a few more releases that you may find a bit lackluster. I was not able to attending any screenings of 3 Days to Kill starring Kevin Costner or Pompeii starring "Game of Thrones" hunk Kit Harington, so I cannot report whether they are worth your time, effort, and hard earned money. The Oscars are less than 10 days away, so it is time to get scrambling if you are feeling behind. There are some documentaries and foreign films I still need to check out. Check back for reviews of those to come soon! If you are feeling behind, I would like to recommend the AMC Best Picture Showcase. I am in no way affiliated with AMC, so this is basically free marketing for them. I can only attest for the numerous times I have gone to the all day marathon.

AMC presents all nine best picture nominees shown over two Saturdays or, if you are up for it, a 24 hour marathon blitz. As you may recall from my reviews or my Oscar Watch 2014 page, I have already seen all nine nominees. You may be wondering why I would spend two full Saturdays hunkering into a plush movie theater seat for nine movies I have already seen. It should come as no surprise that I love watching movies over and over again. Truth be told, this will be my third time seeing Nebraska and American Hustle. When films are this good, there is usually something different I take away with each viewing. Maybe I watch a different actor or focus on the script or the cinematography. The idea behind seeing them back to back really let's you put them into perspective. Which film really does stand out as the Best Picture of the Year? If I had seen them before, which holds up on its second viewing? Which gets better with age? I have a feeling I will enjoy The Wolf of Wall Street even more this time around. If you are an AMC Stubs member, you get $5 Stubs bucks per day on your member card to use at the concession stand. Mini breaks are offered in between each movie with trivia and prizes and a longer dinner break occurs later in the day. Plus, you get a nifty collectible lanyard.

Here's the rundown of each day:

Saturday, February 22
Philomena
Dallas Buyers Club
The Wolf of Wall Street
12 Years a Slave

Saturday, March 1
Nebraska
Captain Phillips
Her
American Hustle
Gravity

I am thrilled to have a group of friends join us this year. I plan on live tweeting throughout so check my Twitter page for my random thoughts throughout the marathon. I should preface with the fact that it all depends on if Sprint and my iPhone will cooperate with me at the theater. The last time I was there, I could not get a darn internet connection to save my soul! FIRST WORLD PROBLEM, I KNOW!  Here's to a fun couple of Oscar filled Saturdays coming up!

Thanks for reading,
PAUL

Movie Review: HER

HER
Writer/Director: Spike Jonze
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Chris Pratt, Olivia Wilde

Is it possible to fall madly in love with someone even though you have never met them? I am sure that is not uncommon in the world of online dating. What if that person was your operating system? That is the fascinating and peculiar idea behind Spike Jonze's latest, Her. Theodore Twombley (Phoenix) is going through the divorce process with his wife Catherine (Mara). He feels alone, confused, and all of those other feelings that come when the love of your life wants to leave you. It probably does not help matters that he writes love letters for other people as a living through his job at "Beautifulhandwrittenletters.com".

A new, personal, talking operating system has been released on the market, and Theo purchases the new OS1. This new operating system is specifically catered and customized to grow and evolve around the person using it. Theodore gives his new OS1 a female identity who gives herself the name Samantha (Johansson). He is baffled at how intelligent and lifelike Samantha is. She has the capabilities of reading his email, browsing his computer, looking at his music and really knowing everything about him through what is found on his computer or cloud. The more Theodore uses and talks to Samantha, she goes from being a friend and organizer to someone who can sense his emotions and vulnerability. Their relationship continues to grow and when intimacy is experimented with, Theo realizes she is more special than anyone he has ever been with and starts referring to her as his girlfriend. He knows this is a strange and different kind of relationship and keeps Samantha a secret from his boss (Pratt) and good friend Amy (Adams).

Spike Jonze is the creative genius behind the likes of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. His movies are original, different, and may be a bit odd at times. Her is all of that. It is by far one of the most original ideas and concepts I have seen all year. The story takes place in the future but Jonze never states what year it is. The design aesthetic is colorful and vibrant. The city and downtown landscape is a booming metropolis. You may notice that the clothing and costume design slightly contradicts that. Jonze and costume designer Casey Storm have decided to go vintage with high-waist pants and mustaches as the look which I see as them saying that this look has come back to fashion in this timeframe. Technology has soared to new innovative heights. I am sure it is only a matter of time before some of these technological advances start happening. The film provides an insightful commentary on the state of technology, how we come to use it, how it can control our lives, the obsession we have with our devices, online dating, and intrigues us with that concept of an individual falling in love with something so advanced it is practically human. Jonze, along with Phoenix and Johansson, present the romance with such a subtle and evolving growth and is treated like any other romance between two humans. Maybe I was too sucked into it, but there are times where you forget that Samantha is not a real person. When you succumb to the possibility of this being a real relationship, you forget that she is an operating system. You think of her as a voice on the other end of a phone or perhaps two people in a long distance relationship.

We last saw Joaquin Phoenix in a fully charged and highly physical role in 2012’s The Master which also starred Amy Adams. His performance here is far different yet equally impressive and demanding as that one. Theodore is a shy, introverted, and lonely individual. He builds this beautiful relationship all without ever filming any scenes with Johansson. Many of his scenes are him alone interacting with his device. There is an innocence and vulnerability to Phoenix that we don’t often see him portray. Johansson continues her string of really fantastic work within the past few years. Like I have mentioned before, I was a bit late on the ScarJo train, but I am fully on board now. Johansson treats Samantha as if she were a full-bodied character. She is breathtaking and sublime as she morphs from a simple voice of an operating system into this almost girl-next-door type of character. She never uses a cheap robotic techy type of voice. Their chemistry together is so warm and caring that you forget it is about a man falling in love with an operating system. I also find it interesting that Phoenix filmed all of his scenes with another actress cast as Samantha. I do not know how it was originally filmed, if the original actress’ voice was played back for Phoenix to act against or if he was acting without any sort of playback. Johansson took over in the part in post-production after Phoenix shot all of his scenes. Amy Adams and Rooney Mara should not be ignored. It should come as no surprise that they both give strong performances in smaller roles, especially since much of Mara’s work is in flashback montages.

Her is one of those instances where I, as a writer, cannot do justice in describing what the film is like and the journey it gives to its audience. It is best to experience it for yourself and obviously bring an open mind. If I had seen this in 2013 it would have made my Top 10 of 2013 list. Jonze has made another provocative film to add to his innovative repertoire.

RATING: **** 1/2 (4.5 out of 5 stars)