So's Reel Thoughts

The Doom Generation

(1995, Gregg Araki)

Grade: A-

The Doom Generation (1995, Gregg Araki)

Amy: I'm so mad at you, I could rip your testicles off and staple them to your ankles. What the fuck did you have to go and tell Jordan for?

Xavier: Tell him what?

Amy: What do you think, doorknob? That we got together!

Xavier: Well, didn't you utterly dig it?

Amy: That is not the point!

Xavier: Well, what is the point then, get it? Guilt is for married, old people!

Amy: You're incredible. You're not even human, are you? You're like a life-support system for a cock!

Stoker

(2013, Park Chan-wook)

Grade: B+

Hoop Dreams (1994, Steve James)

William Gates: Four years ago that's all I used to dream about was playing in the NBA. I don't really dream about it like that anymore. You know, even though I love playing basketball, you know I want to do other things with my life too.

Warm Bodies

(2013, Jonathan Levine)

Grade: B+

Thank god that's finally over! My god, that was absolutely the worse thing I've seen since Anne Hathaway and James Franco. And Seth Macfarlene make them look like Oscar gods. I made my Oscar prediction and now looking back, I made horrible predictions. Here are the winners of the 85th Academy Awards.

Best Picture
Amour
Argo–WINNER
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln–WINNER
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook-WINNER
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Best DirectorMichael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi–WINNER
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Original Screenplay
Amour, Michael Hankie
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino–WINNER
Flight, John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal

Best Adapted Screenplay
Argo, Chris Terrio–WINNER
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin,
Life of Pi, David Magee
Lincoln, Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell

Best Original Song
“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice, music and lyric by J. Ralph
“Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted, music by Walter Murphy; lyric by Seth MacFarlane
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi, music by Mychael Danna; lyric by Bombay Jayashri
“Skyfall” from Skyfall, music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth–WINNER
“Suddenly” from Les Misérables, music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Best Original Score
Anna Karenina, Dario Marianelli
Argo, Alexandre Desplat
Life of Pi, Mychael Danna–WINNER
Lincoln, John Williams
Skyfall, Thomas Newman

Best Production Design
Anna Karenina, Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
Les Misérables, Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson
Life of Pi, Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Lincoln, Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson–WINNER

Best Film Editing
Argo, William Goldenberg–WINNER
Life of Pi, Tim Squyres
Lincoln, Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook, Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty, Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables–WINNER
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Sound Editing
Argo, Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
Django Unchained, Wylie Stateman
Life of Pi, Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
Skyfall, Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers–WINNER
Zero Dark Thirty, Paul N.J. Ottosson–WINNER

Best Sound Mixing
Argo, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
Les Misérables, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes–WINNER
Life of Pi, Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
Lincoln, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
Skyfall, Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson

Best Foreign Language Film
Amour, Austria–WINNER
Kon-Tiki, Norway
No, Chile
A Royal Affair, Denmark
War Witch, Canada

Best Documentary Feature
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man–WINNER

Best Documentary Short
Kings Point
Mondays at Racine
Open Heart
Redemption
Inocente–WINNER

Best Live Action Short
Asad
Buzkashi Boys
Curfew–WINNER
Death of a Shadow
Henry

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained––WINNER

Best Animated Short
Adam and Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head over Heels
Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”
Paperman–WINNER

Best Animated FeatureBrave–WINNER
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph

Best Cinematography
Anna Karenina, Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained, Robert Richardson
Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda–WINNER
Lincoln, Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall, Roger Deakins

Best Visual Effects
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
Life of Pi, Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott–WINNER
The Avengers, Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
Prometheus, Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
Snow White and the Huntsman, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson

Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina, Jacqueline Durran–WINNER
Les Misérables, Paco Delgado
Lincoln, Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror, Eiko Ishioka
Snow White and the Huntsman, Colleen Atwood

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Hitchcock, Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
Les Misérables, Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell–WINNER

White Material (2009, Claire Denis)

Radio Host: As for the white material, the party's over. No more cocktails on shaded verandas while we sweat water and blood. They're getting out and they're right to run scared. Our rulers are already trembling.

Guys, I'm on fire! I haven't made this many film reviews in a while! Here is my film review of the Chilean film, NO starring Gael Garcia Bernal. NO just came out this weekend and so if you like Spanish films, you will definitely like this one!

HEY HEY HEY! I always love a good action packed film starring Bruce Wills and this is exactly what I got or maybe even more with A Good Day to Die Hard. Check it!

I've made most of my Oscar predictions here and one of the few categories I seriously had no idea in was the Best Animated Short Films. Luckily, Bleeding Cool via The Film Stage was able to collect all five short films and here they are! The Academy Awards is just around the corner (one week in fact) so chop chop chop and make your predictions! Honestly nowadays, I could care less about who wins and whos hot and what's what. But the animation section is one category that always stays true to its art form. Check it!

Adam and Dog, directed by Minkyu Lee

Fresh Guacamole, directed by "PES"

Head Over Heels, directed by Timothy Reckart & Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly

Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare", directed by David Silverman

The Paperman, directed by John Kahrs

These are all exceptional animated short films. I'm glad more Koreans like Minkyu Lee, who was an animator for Disney, is getting more recognition for their work. I've noticed the majority of the best animators are from Korea which I had no idea about till my friend who works at Pixar told me. Minkyu wanted to make Adam and Dog unlike any other short and infuse tranquility like a Terrence Malick or Andrei Tarkovsky film, which he does beautifully. Fresh Guacamole by "PES" is undoubtedly the most imaginative shorts on the list. It's quirky and eccentric enough that'll make you smile from ear to ear multiple times. Head Over Heels is like a trailer to a indelible Michel Gondry romance film which left me wanting to see more! And I was actually surprised by this pick but The Simpson's very own Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare." If you're a Simpson fan, it doesn't disappoint. Then we have the most reblogged, tweeted, and posted short film that wasn't made by Pixar but Disney. The Paperman was shown before Wreak-It Ralph and I was completely floored by the imagery and story. Pixar has made so many amazing short films like La Luna and Day and Night that I didn't think Disney had it in them anymore. Boy, was I wrong. And I'm glad I was wrong because if there is one romantic film that has captured and made 50-year-old men cry, it's The Paperman. I am positive that The Paperman will win the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Guaranteed.

The Paperboy (2012, Lee Daniels)

Charlotte Bless: [in regards to Jack's jellyfish stings] If anyone's gonna piss on him, it's going to be me. He don't like strangers peeing on him.

(2012, Pablo Larrain)

Grade: B+

For Valentine's Day, I compiled a list of my favorite films about love. Granted that my perception of love is nothing without hate, these are 6 films that satisfies each step of the spectrum.

1. Titanic (1997)

2. 10 Thing I Hate About You (1999)
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
4. Blue Valentine (2010)
5. Revolutionary Road (2008)
6. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966)

Then there are films that I love but that didn't make the cut.

1. In the Mood for Love (2000)
2. Closer (2004)
3. When Harry Met Sally (1989)
4. Pretty in Pink (1986)
5. Never Been Kissed (1999)
6. Annie Hall (1977)
7. She's All That (1999)
8. Reality Bites (1994)
9. Gone with the Wind (1939)
10. An Affair to Remember (1957)
11. Amelie (2001)
12. The Way We Were (1973)
13. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
14. My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)
15. The Notebook (2004)

I can't decide what I'll watch this Valentine's Day day. Any suggestions? If all fails, I can always turn to When Harry Met Sally, Closer, or In the Mood for Love. If there are other romance films that you love but I failed to mention, let me know!

Side Effects

(2013, Steven Soderbergh)

Grade: B+

Human Centipede II (2011, Tom Six)

Dr. Sebring: Let's see. The Centipede can be considered a phallic symbol. Centipedes are very aggressive creatures. Their bite can be very painful. Maybe he's connecting the pain that a centipede inflicts with the pain inflicted on him through use of psychological and sexual abuse by his father.

Year: 2013
Director: Fisher Stevens
Cast: Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin
Country of Origin: U.S.
Rating: R
Time: 95 mins

It is crystal clear that even by the trailer of Stand Up Guys, that the film is not going to be that great. But in the midst of the mouthful of horrible films coming out during the oscar season, watching Stand Up Guys starring Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, and Alan Arkin have their last night of hooray isn't so bad. (or have my standards gotten low?)

Val (Al Pacino) is released from prison after serving a whooping twenty eight year sentence for taking the bait and not squealing on his gangster associates (hence, stand up guy). His best friend Doc, played by the ever so free-spirited and lovable Christopher Walken, picks Val up to rekindle and reminisce about their glory days. But the same gangsters that sent Val to jail, has assigned Doc to kill Val before the night is over. Consumed with confliction, Doc decides to give Val the best night of his life with some booze, sex, robberies, car-chases and of course, gun-fights!

There are just some actors like Bill Murray, Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt, and Bruce Willis to name a few, that don't need to necessary shell out great movies left and right. Just the accompaniment of their presence among other great actors is enough to give a girl a thrill. Al Pacino is at his best when he is the sleazy and uninhibited old man who is ready to party hardy with some prescription drugs and hookers. Pacino and the suave yet aloof Walken makes for a wonderfully entertaining pair, who nostalgically reflects on their their hood rat days of breaking into stores, stealing cars, and hooking up with babes. While it is a pint full of light-hearted amusement, the party really starts when they break their old pal Hirsch (Alan Arkin) out from the retirement home. Back in the old days, Hirsch was the Michael Jordan of stealing and driving cars. Whether he is outrunning the cops or making the honeys swoon, Arkin creates a perfect harmony to complete the dynamic of the trio. Stand Up Guys is Fisher Stevens' debut feature film and it shows. The actor turned filmmaker is best well known (to me) as that annoying guy on television even though I don't specifically remember him in anything. While the film isn't fantastic, it still pumps enough chuckles and pleasure that'll cater to your mindless enjoyment and give you the vacation you desperately need from the Oscar films. B-

I was lucky enough to get a chance to go to the 65th Annual DGA Awards' Director Symposium with Steven Spielberg, Kathryn Bigelow, Ben Affleck, Tom Hooper, and Ang Lee. I wish I could've been more descriptive about my experience but good thing I was live-tweeting the entire event (read left to right)! I'm really honored that I got to go and sit in front of the four most revered and lauded filmmakers in the biz (ahem, Ben Affleck doesn't count). I've seen Ang Lee before when I went to a Q&A with him and Suraj Sharma for Life of Pi but man, I love him more every time I see him. I'm definitely going to do an Ang Lee marathon soon.