Inspired by a recent splurge of blog posts on the same topic (Paul Joyce, Milly’s Scribblings and Iain Wear’s Posterous) I thought I would share my A-Z of films:

# – 2001: A Space Odyssey
A – Aliens
B – The Bridge on the River Kwai
C – Casablanca
D – The Dark Knight
E – Erin Brockovich
F – Forrest Gump
G – Goodfellas
H – Heat
I – It’s a Wonderful Life
J – Jaws
K – King Kong (1933)
L – The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
M – Memento
N – Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
O – Once Upon a Time in the West
P – Pulp Fiction
Q – The Quiet Earth
R – Requiem for a Dream
S – The Shawshank Redemption
T – To Kill a Mockingbird
U – The Usual Suspects
V – Vertigo
W –The Wizard of Oz
X – X-Men: First Class
Y – Yojimbo
Z – Zodiac

So, the Oscars nominations came out yesterday and amongst them were some surprises, some disappointments and some correct decisions. Here are my thoughts on the main categories:

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Nominees: The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life and War Horse.

I’ve only seen one of these films (Hugo)! I am appalled at myself! Hopefully I’ll have seen at least four more by the time the Oscars are announced. Based on hype though it appears to be a fight between The Artist and The Descendants. My money is on The Artist though.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Nominees: Demián Bichir (A Better Life), George Clooney (The Descendants), Jean Dujardin (The Artist), Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Brad Pitt (Moneyball)

I’ve still only seen one of these so far (Oldman) and as much as I’d love to see Oldman win my money is on Clooney finally winning.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Nominees: Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs), Viola Davis (The Help), Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) and Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn)

I’m up to three on this one (Mara, Streep and Williams) and I think I have definitely seen the winner. The easy money is on Streep, my outside bet would be on Mara but really the award should go to Williams. Her Marilyn was way more enthralling than Streep’s Thatcher.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Nominees: Kenneth Branagh (My Week with Marilyn), Jonah Hill (Moneyball), Nick Nolte (Warrior), Christopher Plummer (Beginners) and Max von Sydow (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)

Just Branagh for me on this one although I’m actually a little disappointed by the supporting actors list. I would have love to have seen Serkis finally get recognition. It seems a little dull to me. However if the hype is to be believed I’m going to go with Plummer.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Nominees: Bérénice Bejo (The Artist), Jessica Chastain (The Help), Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids), Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs) and Octavia Spencer (The Help)

None for me in this one however I get the impression that Jessica Chastain could have easily filled all five slots with different roles so I am going to go with her!

Best Achievement in Directing

Nominees: Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris), Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist), Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life), Alexander Payne (The Descendants) and Martin Scorsese (Hugo)

And I’m finishing with another zero seen by me (I need to watch more films!) I’m going to go for the outsider in Malick on this one. I’ve heard such amazing things about his Tree of Life and I know him to be a phenomenal director.

So in summary, I have a lot of catching up to do before the finals on 26th February! The rest of the nominees can be found here.

In honour of War Horse opening at the cinema and in anticipation of a future review here is a run down of my top 5 Steven Spielberg directed movies.

5. Munich

Picking 5th place was harder than picking the rest of the list. Any of my honourable mentions at the end of this post could easily have taken this spot but I had to pick something so I went for something from the last decade to show he is still alive and kicking! Five men are picked to avenge the killing of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. We follow them as the track down and take out those responsible.

4. Saving Private Ryan

I think the best war film of 1998 was not Saving Private Ryan but instead was Terrence Malick’s gorgeous The Thin Red Line but Saving Private Ryan is still a very accomplished and gripping war film that still haunts.

3. Raiders of the Lost Ark

Having to put this film in third is a testament to how good Spielberg is. From start to finish this film is faultless as they really don’t make them like they used to (even if Spielberg and Lucas continue to try and fail).

2. Jaws

“We’re gonna need a bigger boat”. A film of two halves that almost feels like you get two masterpieces for the price of one. The film that invented the summer blockbuster and launched Spielberg’s career into the stratosphere.

1. Schindler’s List

Everything about this film is amazing: The soundtrack, the use of black and white, the acting, the beginning, the middle, the end. If you haven’t seen this then you owe it to yourself to find a spare three hours, get rid of all distractions and immerse yourself into one of the best films ever made.

Honourable mentions

• Jurassic Park – ground-breaking special effects that still look amazing today
• Catch Me If You Can – hilarious and charming. Hanks and DiCaprio on top form.
• Minority Report – Spielberg does sci-fi like only he can. Intelligent and heart-pounding. Ruuuuuuuuuun!
• Empire of the Sun – The song Christian Bale’s character sings still haunts me today.

I always want to be more literary than I am but sadly my reading speed means I barely get through 6 books in a year (I’ve been trawling through Cloud Atlas since October). However, a few years ago my friend passed onto me the Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy which starts with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I was gripped by the series and was pleased with the news that Fincher (one of my favourite directors) would be directing the English language adaptation.

And boy am I glad I had read the book first. Not because the film was bad but because knowing who all the characters were and the relationships between them really helped me to be able to relax and just enjoy the 156 minutes of Fincher magic.

Set in Sweden (which impressed me as they didn’t choose to relocate to the US), the basic plot is in 1966 a girl is murdered and 40 years later her uncle is still being tormented by her killer who continues to send him gifts on his birthday the same as his niece would. So he hires disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist to see if he can find the killer even though everyone else failed. During his investigation he acquires the help of the troubled, sociopathic, computer hacking researcher Lisbeth Salander to assist him.

For two and a half hours I was sat watching the mystery unfold and loving every minute of it (apart from two infamous scenes which I will cover shortly). A good indication of if I am enjoying a film comes from when I check my watch and I can happily say I didn’t check it once!

So, what about the infamous scenes of a sexual nature? I squirmed and found them uncomfortable (which was the point I’m sure) but I really don’t think it was necessary to see at least one of them in as graphic detail as we did. A cut-away would have done just as good a job and there are some things that a viewer doesn’t need to see as part of the film. I’m a believer that if you are going to show something like that then you need a really good reason to show it so viscerally.

What about the soundtrack that has gotten so much praise? Well, it sounded very similar to The Social Network to me (both scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but doesn’t indicate much variety from the composers. I’ve downloaded it on Spotify so will give it another listen in the week to form a better opinion.

So in summary I really liked it. Fincher has done a fantastic job at adapting a loved novel and I really hope he completes the trilogy. They have a fantastic cast ready to go and a willing member of the audience right here who will be back for more!

9/10