Best-Actress Buzz Goes to Bening

Not sure about that this year. It seems the the top films are male-heavy contenders. And I did not see Black Swan, and really don’t plan to see it.

So where does that leave the critics? Natalie Portman starred in Black Swan, and then there is Annette Benning. And this is the year of the gays IMO. Annette is my bet. She played alongside Julianne Moore in “The Kids are All Right” it’s a good film and could easily be nominated for best picture this year.

Both women nailed the roles so my guess is that both will get nods. Hillary Swank played the lead in Convinction but don’t get the buzz about her. She does NOT have my vote either. The only other film is “Rabbit Hole” starring Nicole Kidman. The film might win something and Kidman might get a nomination but it is harder to play a gay role with a straight face than a straight role with a sad face.

Okay, it’s settled my bet is Benning for 2011.

McWhorter’s War On Drugs–my rebuttal

http://www.tnr.com/blog/80669/getting-darnell-the-corners-why-america-should-ride-the-anti-drug-war-wave

Now, one thing Darnell could do is get his GED, and meanwhile get a job stocking shelves at Staples. Or working at a shoe store or supermarket. He could get vocational training of some kind, with a small loan it wouldn’t be hard to get. But that’s not what a lot of his friends do. The way they make money is by selling drugs.

Of course nobody calls it that. No one walks up to Darnell and says “Would you like to help us sell drugs on the street to make a living?” It goes by euphemisms—“out on dem corners” and so on. There is a quiet community norm: Young men who drop out of school and do not take jobs, because they can keep money in their pockets by selling drugs on the street. Hardly all young men do this in the community. Most don’t, in fact. But many do—enough that to Darnell, there is nothing unusual about it.

That’s an excerpt from his article. I agree drugs should go legit so that the prison industrial complex will lose its sting in the black community. However, one word that McWhorter does not mention is “free market.” That is an important word he left out. Why? Because there is such a thing as the line of least resistance. In other words it’s damn easy to get a job selling drugs and making money. He also totally ignored “Darlene on the corner” you know what she’s up to. She is selling her body because it is the only skill that will pay her a living wage on the open/free market.

How we gonna get her off the corner John? What if drugs were made legal what would Darnell do? He would go the black market/resale route is my first guess. Then he would get more involved in the sex/slave trade. How we gonna make that legit, i.e., because it is a growing market don’t you know?

I lived through the crack epidemic when it hit the black community in the 1980s. We were warned to do anything but “Stay away from crack…it’s addictive.” That’s what the smart black people did…said no to crack. Seems like every freakin body else was saying yes to crack.

I think getting rid of the war on drugs will go a long way to ease some of the problems in the black community. If we have stronger males instead of endangered males we might be able to start over or at least have some bootstraps to pull up.

I don’t know if McWhorter is being facetious when he writes that it will fix most ills in the black community but he seems to be serious. So, I have to answer with…not so fast.  In some countries, such as Italy, it’s a way of life. I mean this not working thing.  And the war on drugs admittedly is just not working.

Part III: Heloise’s Top 10 Films of the year (inclusive foreign and domestic)

Okay this list is comprised only of the films for 2010 that I’ve actually seen so it may not jibe with other critics, don’t care much. When I do my list on my blog they usually have a higher percentage of really being the top films with many nods.  When I go more public I end up being more wrong. Hate that.

1.  The King’s Speech

 2.  The Last Train

 3.  A Prophet

4.  The Social Network

 5.  The Ghost Writer

 6.  The Last Station

 7.  Inception

8.   The  Town

9.  The Kids Are All Right

10. The Fighter ties with Fair Game

Honorable mentions:

The Kid’s are all right

For Colored Girls

Eat Pray Love

Frankie and Alice (not out yet) 

Heloise’s Top Ten Flixs of 2010: Part II

See my other post of the films I’ve seen. A couple on this list may not have been seen by me for one reason or another. Many films just do not come here so I have to rely on Netflix to get caught up. I did not include any foreign films on the list. This was not the best year in film in fact some films were kinda, well, flimsy LOL. And that’s too bad.  American films don’t take enuf risks IMO. Anyway here is my list. Can’t say I’ve seen them all, but that should not matter.

11.  Eat Pray Love (honorary mention actually)

10.  Inception

9.    127 Hours (did not see)

8.   The Town

7.  The Kids are All Right

6.   The American (did not see yet)

5.   Black Swan (did not see)  

4.  Rabbit Hole (Did not see yet)

3.  The Fighter

2. The Social Network

1. The King’s Speech

Heloise’s 2010 Reel List: Part I

This is just the list of films I’ve seen this year that are part of this season’s films for nominations. These are not ALL the films seen this year however.

I’ve seen them either in theatre or from DVD/Netflix.  The easiest way to recall is to go to my Hollywood Calendar link and scroll through month by month:

Edge of Darkness

I am Love

The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Most Dangerous Man in America

The Book of Eli

The Last Station

A Prophet

The Ghost Writer

My Name is Khan

Greenberg

Brooklyn’s Finest

Eat Pray Love

Sex and the City 2 (worst film of 2010)

Holy Rollers (Jesse Eisenberg)

Solitary Man

Just Wright

Letters to Juliet

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

Winter’s Bone

Salt

Inception

The Girl Who Played with Fire

Howl

Waiting For Superman

Wall Street Money Never Sleeps

The Town

The American

True Grit

Toy Story 3

Eichmann

Hereafter

The Social Network (Jesse Eisenberg)

Unstoppable

Fair Game

For Colored Girls

Shoah

The Fighter

The King’s Speech

 The Last Train

 

New on Netflix streaming: “JFK Reckless Youth”

You can watch it on streaming now if you have an account. I luv it naturally.

If you want to get caught up on others “I am Love” with Tilda Swinton is also streaming as is The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.

Roger Ebert’s List of ten best foreign films of 2010

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/12/the_10_best_foreign_films_of_2.html

Get them to your Netflix queue.

Movie Review: The King’s Speech

First published: http://blogcritics.org/video/article/movie-review-the-kings-speech/ at Blogcritics.org

The King’s Speech is a great film about British monarch King George VI from British director Tom Hooper. Hooper teamed with HBO to direct two award-winning features: Longsford and John Adams.  Hooper’s 2005 Elizabeth I series won an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Peabody Award and focused on the last 25 years of her 45-year reign. Hooper might well be the modern-day master of the English historical drama. He’s a cinematic game-changer in that his dramas will attract new fans to the historical genre. This film has seven Golden Globe nominations including Best Drama and best dramatic actor - Colin Firth (A Single Man).

Firth is just brilliant as Prince Albert (AKA Bertie by friends) before taking the name George VI as king. His road to the monarchy is fraught with history: the death of his father George V, Hitler’s rise to power, declaration of war on Germany, the abdication of his brother King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) to marry Wallace Simpson, and his biggest historical hurdle—the stutter which started when he was four.  

The film’s title refers to a speech that the new king must deliver. It is his first declared-war speech. The country holds its collective breath because war has been declared and the news has to be delivered by a man who swallows the King’s English.

Geoffrey Rush is speech therapist Lionel Logue who becomes a speech coach and personal friend. In fact he accompanies the king at every speech he makes during the war. The film processes to that climatic speech that will be broadcast live to the British Empire.

Lionel demands that Bertie meet him on a human level, which becomes tense at times for both men. Logue’s experience tells him the future king was not born with the speech impediment but developed it over pscyhological damange early in life. They both probe his psyche to find the cause for the stutter. When the Prince’s lack of self-confidence and abuse by a trusted nannie is unearthed, it helps little to resolve his speech pattern.

Elizabeth (Helen Bonham Carter) is the one who finds Lionel Logue and plans to hire him to correct her husband’s speech. But first the men must meet, connect, and agree to terms for the therapy. Logue has unorthodox methods and is not vetted by the king or his men first, so when Lionel’s lack of credentials is discovered it threatens to end their work together before it begins. Logue must earn the trust of Bertie and then King George VI more than once as the men’s egos spar.

When the dust settles and the two are reconciled, they must work fast to prepare the king for his first official speech; they have only hours to work. Logue works out a strategy whereby he is in the space where the king will speak.  He guides the king through this terrain like a conductor with his orchestra. There is much comedic relief found in Hooper’s film because Logue employs every trick in the book to keep the king focused so that he avoids the signature stammer in his voice.  Oddly enough Bertie can curse, sing, and swear without missing a beat. So, the men combine these tricks with hilarious effect.  

You don’t have to be an anglophile to love this film or to recognize that it will be remembered and honored by its peers in the New Year. The cast is stellar and it delivers theatrical performances worthy of Shakespeare. Don’t miss what will surely be best picture of 2010.   

Directed by Tom Hooper; produced by Iain Canning; with Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin, and Geoffrey Rush. Written by David Seidler. Run time: 111 minutes.

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/video/article/movie-review-the-kings-speech/page-2/#ixzz19eeGqCR9

Craigslist Killer Movie on Lifetime airs Jan 3

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/12/13/the-craigslist-killer-lifetime-movie-too-soon/

Just saw this on TV. Some are asking is it too soon. He killed himself in August 2010 and the movie is set for Lifetime TV to air this Monday. I wanna see it.

Rookie Black Female Officer Killed while protecting 11 YO girl

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2010/12/barnes_samuel_nettles_washingt.php

The link above has photo of the woman officer Jillian age 24 who was shot and killed by Barnes Nettles (black male). He killed Jillian, his wife and then himself. The young girl escaped thanks to the officer who moved toward the girl to protect her when Barnes shot her. Hell, he must have been a good shot and should have been an officer, instead he is a murderer.  This is a sad dad to kill two women and threatening his own daughter.

Hats off to this real hero. The definition is giving or risking your life for someone who is not related to you.