Last 10 Films I've Seen (as of Dec. 1st): Sex Kittens Go to College is NOT an Adult Film

A cult film made in 1960 with a 2.6 IMDB rating starring Mamie van Doren, who hails from South Dakota, and Tuesday Weld with a cameo from a then unknown country singer named Conway Twitty (too bad he's no longer alive as it would be fun to follow Twitty on Twitter). We are, of course, referring to "Sex Kittens Go To College." It aired late at night on TCM in June, and we finally got around to watching it.

Of course, as always, we like to mention that we ripped off this idea from "Film Comment" magazine. But, in all seriousness, Gavin Smith, Amy Taubin, et al, always make a compelling film journal. And, I imagine neither of them has seen "Sex Kittens Go To College")!

Here is the list:

1. Sex Kittens Go To College (1960. Albert Zugsmith)

2. Alphabte City (1985. Amos Poe)

3. The Italian (Russia. 2005. Andrey Krovchuk)

4. Night of the Creeps (1986. Fred Dekker)

5. Kapo (Italy. 1960. Gillo Pontecorvo)

6. Thief of Paris (France. 1967. Louis Malle)

7. V/H/S (2012. Many directors)*

8. Dallas Buyers Club (2013. Jean-Marc Vallee)

9. The Telephone Book (1971. Nelson Lyon)

10. 12 Years A Slave (2013. Steve McQueen)**


*-It's a terrible film, but it is as a gruesome as advertised

**-Named film of the year by Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone"


http://www.tcm.com


http://www.filmcomment.com

http://www.rollingstone.com

Our Oscar Forecasts- Part Two

The first of this two-part entry is at our other blog "The Daily Vampire."

Here are our projections for the other Oscars that will be given out on Sunday night:


Animated Feature Film:

Who Should Win: "The Fantastic Mr. Fox"
Who Will Win/Our Pick: "Up"


Art Direction:

Who Should Win: anyone but "Avatar"
Who Will Win: "Avatar"

Cinematography:

Who Should Win: "The Hurt Locker"
Who Will Win: "The Hurt Locker"

Costume Design:

Who Should Win: Honestly, we don't know!
Who Will Win: "Young Victoria" (pictured-Oscar seems to always choose Victorian films in this category so........)

Documentary (feature):

The Nominees: "Burma VJ," "The Cove," "Food, Inc.," "The Most Dangerous Man in America......," and "Which Way Home"
Who Should Win: "Burma VJ," "The Cove" or "Food, Inc." (the only film I've seen in this category)
Who Will Win: "The Cove"---it seems to be the most popular film.

Documentary (short):
Who Will Win: "Rabbit a la Berlin" (has the highest rating on the IMDB)

Film Editing:
Who Should Win: "Inglorious Basterds" (for all the film's faults, this was well-done)
Who Will Win" "The Hurt Locker" or "Avatar"
Our Pick: "Avatar" (though I hope we're wrong!).

Foreign-Language Film:

We were actually going to a whole entry on this topic. Oh well!

The Nominees: "Ajami" (Israel), "The White Ribbon" (Germany), "A Prophet" (France), "The Milk of Sorrow" (Peru) and "The Secret in Their Eyes." (Argentina)
Who Should Win: Critics Amy Taubin ("Film Comment") and Peter Travers ("Roling Stone") love "A Prophet." Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon" is also highly-regarded. "Ajami," which involved real-life Palestinians has a great human interest story. This disqualifies each one of them as well as the movie from Peru, just because it's from Peru.
Who Will Win/Our Pick: "The Secret in Their Eyes," which is hopefully much better than previous year's winners in this category.

Makeup:

Our Pick: "The Young Victoria"

Musical Score:

Our Pick: "Avatar"

Short Film Animated:

Who Should Win: The anti-corporate "Logorama" about a police chase through downtown LA looks the most interesting (haven't seen any of the films myself).
Who Will Win: "A Matter of Loaf and Death," simply because it's a Wallace and Grommit film.

Short Film Live Action:

Our Pick: "The New Tenants."

Sound Editing:

Our Pick: "The Hurt Locker."

Sound Mixing:

Our Pick: "The Hurt Locker"

Visual Effects:

Our Pick: "Avatar"

Screenplay (Adapted)

The Nominees: "District 9," "An Education," "Up in the Air," "Precious" and "In the Loop."

Who Should Win: "Up in the Air," "An Education" or "In the Loop" (long-shot).
Who Will Win/Our Pick: "Up in the Air"

Screenplay (original):

The Nominees: "The Hurt Locker, "Inglorious Basterds," "Up," "A Serious Man," and "The Messenger."

Who Should Win: "A Serious Man" (it has next to no chance in hell of winning)
Who Will Win: "The Hurt Locker"


That's it, hopefully I will do as well as Channel 7 (Roanoke, Va.) weather-person Robin Reed or my film critic friend Bilge Ebiri. If not, we'll try again next year.....

Rolling Stone Names "Precious" Film of the Year

I was a bit surprised to see "Rolling Stone" film critic Peter Travers choose the African-American film "Precious" as the best film of 2009. Travers also cited the new George Clooney film "Up in the Air" (only showing in major markets, to my knowledge) and the acclaimed war drama "The Hurt Locker" on his list.

I am working on my own list, but first I need some of these expletive movies!

Here is Travers' list:

1. "Precious"
2. "Up in the Air"
3. "The Hurt Locker"
4. "An Education"
5. "Up"
6. "Where the Wild Things Are"
7. "A Serious Man"
8. "District 9" (I really hated this movie!)
9. " (500) Days of Summer"
10. "The Messenger"