Oscar Week: Nine

(Photo found here)

Well, I have to inform this upfront. I hate musicals. Can't stand them. I don't see the point of a movie where someone suddenly starts to sing for no apparent reason. I do like The Sound of Music and Mamma Mia! and older musicals, but that's pretty much it. I hated Moulin Rouge and I hated Chicago. Coincidentally, Nine's director, Rob Marshall, is the same guy who directed Chicago.

Now, this movie is a bit different. It has a powerful cast who doesn't need introductions and I think that's why I got my hopes up. I thought the plot was very weak and some of the acting was... well, weak too. Penélope Cruz, though, one of my favorite actresses, was marvelous. Maybe she'll get an Oscar this year as well?

The music wasn't exciting and fresh at all, the only song I actually liked was "Be Italian" by Fergie (who I dispense as an actress). Anyway, waiting for a better musical to come out!

Nominations: Best Supporting Actress (Penélope Cruz), Best Art Direction (John Myhre/Gordon Sim), Best Costume Design (Colleen Atwood), Best Original Song - "Take It All" (Maury Yeston).

Predictions: Best Supporting Actress is definitely going to Mo'Nique with the movie Precious. It won't get Best Art Direction as well, that'll go to Avatar. And honestly, I hope it doesn't win Best Costume Design. First of all, because one of my favorite movies, Coco Avant Chanel, is also nominated in that category and because, frankly, the costume design wasn't that amazing.

So that's it, I'm done! Unfortunately, I didn't watch A Single Man or Julie&Julia because I couldn't find them anywhere, but I'll definitely comment on both when I do get to watch them. All in all, I think Avatar and Inglourious Basterds are going to be the lucky winners. And The Hurt Locker too, although I didn't watch it.

About two hours left for the Oscars, I'm so excited! Thanks for bearing with me with all these reviews. I really enjoy writing them. One more post with a kind of reaction and I'm done, I promise!

Bisou, bisou *

BEDA #2 - I'm a bit late

Hi!

It's 01.33 AM and it's April 3rd. I heard about this BEDA/VEDA thing through Alex Day's vlog, and didn't give it much thought, because being a complete stranger on YouTube doesn't give it much meaning, due to the views I know my vlogs would get. I did think it through now, and I thought that blogging would be much better. I am a bit late, I'm afraid. I'll post this entry today pretending it's April 2nd (and it is in lots of countries, so I'm not quite cheating if I do say so myself). I could pretend it's April 1st but that would really be cheating, right? Yeah. Well, April 1st is April Fool's Day, so in honour of that day, I will pretend it's April 1st and I'm starting my BEDA challenge. So there.

I'll start by introducing myself. My name is Ana Lorena, and I'm known by the majority of my friends and other people as Lo. I'm from Lisbon, Portugal, though I'm also half-dutch. I love to write (thus wanting to actually accomplish this challenge), to read and to vlog, although this last thing hasn't actually "spread out". I first heard of Maureen Johnson through John and Hank Green's vlogs, and I have some of her books, which I think are amazing. That and her blog, which is hilarious.

I just came back from a five day trip from Paris with a bunch of my friends. That was nice. I'm editing the footage I filmed there, and am making a scrapbook with photos I took. I wish I had stayed there a bit longer.

I can say that I'm working on a novel. An attempt at a novel, I might add. I hope I'm not one of those people that loves to read and write but when it comes to the moment of truth people hate everything that comes out of my pen. Or tapping on the keyboard. At least some of the feedback that I already got was positive, so that's nice.

Well, not much to say. This is a bit hard. Going back to drinking my tea. I'll blog some more tomorrow (later today, I should say, but no one needs to know that). Hope I get some views on this and I'll be sure to read some of your blogs :)

- Lo