raincontreras.com | one pinoy pundit points and shoots

First off, I’ve only seen one film from the winners’ roster, and that’s Babel. Hence, this post doesn’t necessarily convey a lot of objectivity.

On Best Film, and Best Director:

• Scorsese’s The Departed was based on HK hit film, Infernal Affairs. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of both films.
• It’s not an amusing fact at all that the great Scorsese had to win an award based on an Asian remake, isn’t it? One would definitely have greater expectations from this much anticipated Oscar hand-off, but then, I personally haven’t been excited by any of Scorsese’s work as of late.

Two instances from the awards show I actually got excited about:
(DISCLAIMER: I didn’t the see the show in its entirety, though I’m surprised I actually bothered to see it at all)

• The Danish Poet winning as Best Animated Short. What’s to be excited about? Its in 2D, and it swells like a long-lost animated classic tale of love, innoncence, and, well, poetry, which is a sharp contrast to the rest of its co-nominees. Watch a clip here.
• Any mention of Pan’s Labyrinth, which has elated me since Cinematical posted its reviews, and when the trailers were being shown in the local theaters.

No, I don’t have a bias against any Hollywood output, but see, they already have their machine to back up their films, compared to the small number of us who choose to evangelize what the other films can offer.

On the Oscar 2007 coverage in cable news:

CNN and BBC considers the Oscars 2007 as news, with moderate coverage, and some analyses in the bin. However, I’ve been switching channels constantly, and I’ve only seen FOXNews mention the awards show in one segment. Oh, I’m not defending the significance of the Oscars, I’m just a little sickened why this so-called news organization would be so obvious that they won’t have anything from what they refer to as ‘liberal-Hollywood‘, and would rather allot airtime to Ana Nicole Smith-related updates (on err, what exactly?) on each of their shows.

Since residing at work the past few weeks, I’ve had ample time to see movies that seem interesting enough to spend employee-earned money on. Here are brief reviews of still-shown movies at the local box-office, as well as a local indie release:

The Fountain (2006)

Hugh Jackman reprises a role tailor-fit for Ralph Fiennes, as a martyr for love, a tortured soul, a love who will transcent the bounds of time and reality for his beloved. Jackman succeeds, but I miss the fragile nature, the pale, physical weakness shown by Fiennes in most of his film characters. As for Rachel Weisz, she is easily now at par with Cate Blanchett as a fave actress for these Hollywood-tinged, but significant nonetheless, pieces of modern cinema (it also helps that she was outstanding in The Constant Gardener). Director Aronofsky did what appears as sensible and organic for the film’s visual effects: minimal CGI, and a good dose of macro-photography. As for the movie, this is easily a film gem that was lucky enough to be shown at the local box office, so do catch it soon, as I don’t think people will like it very much.

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Babel (2006)

This has OSCAR fave written all over it, I won’t even go through a checklist of reasons why it is so. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu weaves several plots that transpired in Morocco, Japan, and Mexico, but the links (especially the one originating from Tokyo) seems a bit forced. Sadly, this doesn’t have the vibe that Amores Perros or 21 Grams gave off: it feels a lot like last year’s favorite, Crash (not bad, but not OMFG good). The Tokyo chapter -with the magnificent Kôji Yakusho, with Rinko Kikuchi in her birthday suit- appears to be the strongest in potential, but I don’t believe there’s anything there that’s highly original. Honestly, not a time-waster of a film, but I expected more.

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Imahe Nasyon (2007)
Showing Feb 21-27, indieSINE Robinson’s Galleria

Twenty indie directors, twenty short films, in two hours, starring Ping Medina (in about 90% of the shorts). This omnibus is easily a major work of the first quarter for local cinema (independent, or otherwise [whatever otherwise means nowadays]) this year, but it does come off as uneven; maybe its the theme of patriotism, or maybe its because some of the work can’t become anything more than experimental, blah narratives, or plain, visual fluff. Instant favorites would be Ogi Sugatan’s “5 Minutes” (concise, funny, poignant), and Lav Diaz’s “Nang Matapos Ang Ulan” (sadly, the only work I’ve seen from him). Honorable mentions go to: Raymond Red “Mistulang Kamera Obskura”, Roxlee’s “La Pula”, Ellen Ramos’s “Speci Men”, Robert Quebral’s “Barado”, Paolo Villaluna’s “One Shot”, Topel Lee’s “Ang Manunulat”, and Sigfreid Barros-Sanchez’s “Aksyon Star”.

My night-shift officemates are nice enough to pester me by calling me to wake me up from the floor sleeping room. So, that mean’s my 4:30AM alarm doesn’t work for me anymore.

Then I dropped my years-old phone, further aggravating the weak gluing of the lower faceplate on the fake casing. A sign of better, or worse, things ahead?

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In the news today:

Palace refuses to give copy of Melo report

Malacañang has refused to furnish the European Union and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights’ special rapporteur a copy of the findings of the Melo Commission, insisting that the report on extrajudicial killings was still incomplete… The report, which has yet to be made public, linked some of the killings of leftist activists to the military, particularly retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo formed the Melo Commission, which is chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo, in August 2006.

Honestly, who can still tolerate this sort of thing from the administration?
Senator Arroyo calls opposition destroyers of democracy

“I’ve no discomfort running with people who want to abolish the Senate because that is) constitutional,” he said. “But how can I join a group that wants to abolish democracy? The other side wants to overthrow the government. And supposing they succeed to overthrow (President Gloria) Macapagal-Arroyo, will they accept the constitutional successor? They have not answered that.”

That does it. I’ll do an MLQ3, and vote straight for the opposition slate, despite some candidates’ lack of discernable credibility. I, we, don’t have many choices.

In Heated Exchanges, Reporters Press Snow To Justify Iran Claims

At today’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Tony Snow faced intense questioning over administration claims that Iranians have smuggled weapons into Iraq with “the approval of senior Iranian officials.” Yesterday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace seemed to contradict this claim, saying that he has not seen evidence that the Iranian government “clearly knows or is complicit” in the weapons smuggling (Watch VIDEO).

Corollary: I used to watch FOX News for sole entertainment purposes, but its getting to me; their pro-Bush propaganda isn’t funny any more.

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I’ll probably be releasing a review of Aronofsky’s The Fountain -now showing commerciallyin Manila theaters- any day now, just to justify is blog’s tagline that I actually do some form of punditry. I’ll make a brief statement on it though: WATCH IT.

Oh, no date yesterday, just my lonesome self in a marginally expensive, but very comfy, theater seat at an Eastwood Cinema theater (a 3 minute walk from my current habitat [the office]), and around 10 people apathetically watching less than two hours of cinema that their collective brain tissue can’t hack too well.

Anthony Bourdain on Rachael Ray: Complain all you want. It’s like railing against the pounding surf. She only grows stronger and more powerful. Her ear-shattering tones louder and louder. We KNOW she can’t cook. She shrewdly tells us so. So…what is she selling us? Really? She’s selling us satisfaction, the smug reassurance that mediocrity is quite enough. [source] It gets better.

If you have to watch a YouTube video today, make it this one, about.. just watch it. The word you’re looking for is fascinating, and if you will feel pity, the idiot-remark pie is thrown back at your face.