Cinema and Popcorn

Genre: Drama / Sci-fi / Adventure Director: James Cameron Writers: James Cameron, Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Britain Dalton, Jamie Flatters, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Jack Champion, Bailey Bass, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet & Edie Falco Avatar: The Way of Water might have some issues (mostly due to writing, like its predecessor 2009's Avatar ), but this sequel is an amazing visual spectacle you should watch on the big-screen. Yes, James Cameron did it again! The Way of Water is a sci-fi epic with some of the most beautiful shots of the last years and it is an extremely entertaining adventure film, thanks to great action sequences, but it fails to reach what it aims to be: a tale about imperfect parents and imperfect children. But what it lacks in character development (an issue we often see in James Cameron's movies) it has in visual splendor. It's style over substance, but a very entertaining (and beautiful) on...

  GOLDEN GLOBES 2023 NOMINATIONS The absence of  Women Talking  in Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Director and in the acting categories was a major shock for me, alongside the snub of the supporting men of The Fabelmans. I was expecting the HFPA to go for a more diverse and gender-equality friendly picks, but I was wrong. Still can't believe they still picked Brad Pitt ( Babylon ) despite the domestic abuse allegations these days. About the selection of Ana de Armas ( Blonde ) and Olivia Colman ( Empire of Light ) despite their movies flopped - well, I would be fine with them but their inclusion meant Danielle Deadwyler to be snubed by her astonishing performance in  Till  (and that was simply criminal). Sad for no  Cha Cha Real Smooth  here, but pleased to see some love for  The Menu  and Dolly De Leon ( Triangle of Sadness ), although I didn't like Triange of Sadness (she was the best thing about the movie, by far). So, no big shocks he...

Well... this is it! Golden Globes are coming and here are my predictions for the motion picture categories (except Best Animated Feature). Have a look:

In the previous posts, it was all about the sound categories. Today it's all about the "visual" categories: editing, cinematography, production design, costume design, makeup & hair and visual effects. Epic productions fare well in these races (usually), but there's no way to deny a spot to smaller or even international productions with widespread critical acclaim. Big players in these fields usually translate to Best Picture love (like Dune , most recently, for example), but this year feels a bit overcrowded with big quality productions - Avatar: The Way of Water , Black Panther: Wakanda Forever , Babylon , Elvis ,  Top Gun: Maverick , The Fabelmans and The Batman . Still, I feel Netflix's All Quiet On the Western Front might have a nice show here: war movies tend to do good in these categories and since Netflix lost its biggest Oscar horses due to less enthusiastic buzz-killing (non-enthusiastic) critical receptions for Bardo , White Noise and Blonde , I ...

We (re)start with the sound categories: Best Original Score, Best Original Song and Best Sound. These fields are often associated with bigger productions and (in Best Original Song, specially) animated features. So, there's no surprise to predict Top Gun: Maverick as the top contender in two categories: the box-office smash hit features the best sound work of the year so far, with exquisite editing and mixing of all the sounds in the action flick. Plus, it also features the super balad " Hold My Hand " by Lady Gaga , who seems to be determined to become a two-times Oscar winner. But there are also other big names here: John Williams is back scoring another Spielberg flick ( The Fabelmans ) and reviews praise his work (as always); Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connor (both fresh from their Oscar win for " No Time to Die " song) are back with two tunes for Pixar's Turning Red ; Taylor Swift wrote and sang " Carolina " for Where the Crawdads Sin...