Oscar Best Picture Nominee: 127 Hours
Starring: James Franco
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Produced by; Christopher Colson, Danny Boyle, John Smithson
Adapted from: Aron Rolston's Between a Rock and a Hard Place


Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 94%

Synopsis: A happy-go-lucky son foes out trekking in a a wide canyon alone... without telling anyone where he is going. Trapped with a  boulder blocking his arm to move, he has no choice but to resort to a desperate measure in order to survive.

Movie critic Matt Kelemen says that 127 Hours "... maybe a total contrast with [Slumdog Millionaire], but in terms of artistic innovation, it is a greater achievement." Indeed, given the awesome cinematography to visualize Aron Ralston's (Franco) hallucination is a great device to put an action on a seemingly stationary character stuck in between rocks. Yes, if you are looking for an action pack trekking experience, this is not the movie for you; but, I assure you that when I say that this movie is action-packed, it is definitely thrilling.

The film revolves around the story of Aron Ralston and his 127-hour stranded moments in between two rocks with a boulder blocking his hand. Equipped with only a cheap swiss knife, a head light, half-a-bottle of water and some biscuits, he has no choice but to witness his own slow death. Amidst of fading hope and desperately resorting to drinking his own urine to quench his thirst, he hallucinates and entertains himself with his camera and some skits. It is funny how the plot is extended to include the bubly side of James Franco (Can I just say that he is HAWT?). His charms juxtaposed to his acting prowess makes him deserving for the Best Actor Award.

Three years after the success of Slumdog Millionaire, Producer-Director Danny Boyle goes back to the Oscar scene with this compelling story. With the gruesome and visual amputation climax, an audience could either pass out or at least feel the pain of desperation. Indeed, a very amazing creation and not a movie for those who can't take blood.

Other Academy Awards Nominations:
Best Actor. James Franco
Best Adapted Screenplay. Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
Best Original Score. AR Rahman
Best Original Song. AR Rahman, Dido and Rollo Armstrong
Best Film Editing. Jon Harris

Oscar Best Picture Nominee: The Black Swan

Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, VIncent Cassel

Director: Daren Aronofsky

Producer: Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 88%

Metacritic: 79%

Synopsis: A young talented prima ballerina struggles with her insecurities especially with her understudy.

Subtleties in the movies make one good. A perfect combination of symbolisms, irony and natural drama would make a movie stand out among any other. The best movies don't rely in the script to achieve a specific reaction. Most of the time, as it is in real life, reactions-- specifically, emotions--- originate from subtle forces acting on the subject. Indeed, BS quenched my thirst for subtleties and it's outstanding performances and mind-puzzling scenes made me want this movie to win the Oscars for Best Picture.

Natalie Portman portrayed the prima ballerina Nina Sayers whose ballet technique is outstanding yet it is rigid.  She is compared with her co-cast and her understudy (Mila Kunis) which on the other hand has the fluidity and a slight touch of carelessness. For this specific production, Natalie Portman, in fact, trained herself in ballet and professional ballerinas and danseurs praised her technique. Performances in this film is even comparable to what we can see on live stage. Not only that NP praised for her astonishing ballet but also her portrayal of the troubled protagonist. Her acting is so natural that motivations are clearly established (except for one thing, we will go back to that). She deserved the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and so as the Oscar's Best Actress.

Given the genre of the movie, the psycho-drama is creepily enticing. The horror is sublime. We cannot see the traditional cunning and conniving evil but we definitely sense its presence. The evil is within oneself, says this movie, that we should be afraid of what we can do to ourselves. The appearance of the feathers in the final performance, the stabbing scene and the mysterious scratch marks (although it can be helpful if the script clarifies  the reasons for this) are hair-raising enough to invoke a deep form of fear. The film could be confusing but it encourages the audience to think.

Good movie, Highly Recommended.

Other Oscar's Nominations:

Best Director

Best Actress

Best Cinematography

Best Film Editing

Coming Next: 2011 Oscar's Nominees for Best Picture

Am I a movie critic? No. But I'll try to put my two cents on the nominees. 

This year, the Academy nominated 10 films for the Best Picture Category-- 5 more than the usual 5 nominees of the last years. Fair enough, because 2010 was a year of great movies. The nominees for 83rd Academy Awards for Best Pictures are:

• The Black Swan. Medavoy. Oliver. Franklin
• The Fighter. Hoberman. Lieberman. Wahlberg
• Inception. Thomas. Nolan
• The Kids are All Right. Gilbert. Levy-Hinte. Rattray
• The King's Speech. Canning. Sherman. Unwin
• 127 Hours. Colson. Boyle. Smithson
• The Social Network. Rudin. Brunetti. De Luca. Chaffin
• Toy Story 3. Anderson
• True Grit. Rudin. Coen. Coen
• Winter's Bone. Rosselini. Mardigan-Yorkin

Up next are my individual movie reviews for the nominees.

Crap yet there is a potential

Three years ago, we have a different principal: Strict and very traditional yet very good school administrator. By traditional I mean that she was very conservative on every aspect thus it was never allowed for the students to perform something which depicts anger or with a hint of sexiness. You have to cover every bit of your body with cloth, that is why there are no beauty pageants in the school. But now, the new principal (although his administrative skills is very much hated and there are issues concerning against him) is a little bit loose when it comes to those kinds of things. Currently, the school is doing annual beauty pageants, field trips, JS prom and all other things we were not doing way back. As for the arts, modern dance is now encouraged so still as the folk dance which dated way back the antiquity of our batch. Yesternight, I attended the Cultural Presentation of my high school for the Barrio Fiesta of Pulong Buhangin, Sta. Maria , Bulacan. I could tell that they are up for that specific night and they toiled days to  prepare for the production. I couldn't say the production is astounding nor it can pass my taste (The students, and also the teachers need a crash course on basic back stage management and on how to control your mouth), but they did a job well done. In all fairness to them, it is wonderful to see how modernization was obvious in the program compared from our traditional and boring stuff we do three years ago (which on a biased point of view, we kicked ass. Hello, we are the "golden batch") .

The whole experience was fun. Having to mingle with my ex-teachers, seeing old classmates and friends, finding cute high-school guys (with abs!), and meeting interesting faces. One performance caught me there is the fire dancing. Again, I am not impressed with the performance itself but on how much skin it was shown. The guys only wore boxers and the girls are flaunting their curves. By God on the High Heavens, that scene is far from tolerable and would easily send the ex-principal in fury. But no, the new principal is gay and from that it is implied that he likes the scene very much with that smile painted all over the face. Everything else is plain and boring, the whole production didn't impress me at all.

 Having been exposed to a variety of arts, and to point I am not a know-it-all, there performance last night was nothing compared to what I have seen and experience. First, the production team is totally disorganized-- it will be best if there is a central person to manage and delegate stuff. Backstage traffic was outrageous, every one is speaking loudly and everyone is all over the corridors (There is no dressing rooms pa nga!). The stage was undefined, how come CAT cadets allow small children running in the performance area? The mics are too low in volume to think that they are performing in an open-space. In short, everything is very amateur and inexperience is pretty much obvious.

The good thing about the production last night is on how the "arts" on our dear old alma mater is being extended. This could mean that the teachers and the student would continue to explore their potentials so should there ever any other school production, they will be better than yesternight showcase of crap.  I would advice them to do some research and watch more interesting stuffs. Enough of that crumping and modern dance, that is so  passe, Showtime has a lot of that already and even Vice Ganda is having enough of those stuffs. Find more ways to be creative, that is the key. Yet, despite of the tedious performances yesternight, they did the job done.

Funny Commuters

Commuting is very tiring: Squeezing your way through mass transportations, boring your way through the EDSA traffic, contaminating your lungs with smog notwithstanding free unwanted face powder every time smokebelchers pass you by. There are a lot of ways a commuter can describe the stress commuting induces. As for me, it drains me farther after the toxic of school. Look, what will you feel after taking a two-hour exam then when you sardined yourself through MRT the man beside you smells like sinigang. Hahahah. However things could be fun in commuting. Today, while going home, three scenes caught my attention.

The first one was a man, at least on what his formal business attire could say to me. We entered the MRT on Ayala Avenue and as it is expected, we should squeeze through the sardine-like train to avoid the EDSA rush-hour traffic. So we are standing station from station, our bodies bumped to each other many times (he is good-looking by the way) and he was texting. I dunno but for some reasons, without any intentions to pry (or maybe there is, I keep on denying it), I saw he's texting some named Sir Jeffrey. The message read (NV): "Mahal nasa train na ako, malapit na ako. I love you po". Processing this particular scene, many possible theories came into my head, but given my scientific background, Occam Razor's Principle says to me that he is gay. So we girls, we come to a conclusion that, "Aanhin pa ang gwapo, kung gwapo rin ang hanap." (What we'll do to a handsome man if he looks for another handsome man.)

I got over the gay guy from the train, so I went down North Avenue Station, walked from Trinoma to the bus stop in SM and boarded the bus. The bus is fairly deserted and it is unusual for the rush-hour to have a bus hardly half-full. So I sat by the left side of the train and seated beside the windows. Opposite my seat is a couple, the guy is from FEU (noticed from the uniform) and the girl is a saleslady (note the varicose veins behind that skin-toned stockings). It is approximately one-hour ride from SM North to my home in Bulacan and we passengers occupied like almost one-fifth of the seats and we are staggered everywhere. I am a keen observant myself so I noticed it when the couple transferred to the back seats which no one is seating. As a malicious person and I concluded that my senses are right because upon looking at the mirror (Not to check if my face is oily again but to spy on the couple) I saw the couple lip-locking and tongue fighting at the back seat. I suggest these two persons should flick their channels to ETC 21 and wait Tyra Banks to say "Too much PDA, GO GET A ROOM".

Ten minutes away from the stop, there was also this putaching looking lady two rows up but on the other side of the bus. She is awfully dressed and heavily made-up. The hair was pony-tailed on one side and I can imagine her waiting in Cubao overpass for drunken and ill-smelled customers who only come at night. We are nearing our stop and she prep herself up. It is kinda weird because the bus is homebound but she put another layer of lipstick to her kalyo-infested lips and  sprayed a mist of perfume (In fairness to her she has a nice perfume) to her cloth-scarced dress but what annoyed me the most is that the smell of her hand lotion. It diffused in air and its like there is a funeral on going inside the bus. Oh well, I can't blame her she looks like a putaching.


It is funny seeing these kinds of people while commuting. You don't really know if they made your busy day a little lighter or they made it worse. As for me, I just had a very funny commuting experience