Searching for Sugar Man

The Rio Theatre has been showing quite a few Oscar nominated films recently and Searching for Sugar Man was just one of them. This documentary answers what happened to the mysterious Rodriguez. Before watching this documentary I had only ever heard the song Sugar Man, but I had never really looked up who sung it, Searching for Sugar Man answers that.

Back in the early 70s Rodriguez released 2 albums which were huge flops. But during a time in South Africa where people were suffering and wanting to stand up to their government they found something in Rodriguez's songs. His "Bob Dylan-esque" songs resonated with South Africans who used his songs to find the courage to fight back. In turn Rodriguez had become the Elvis of South Africa. Over half a million copies of Rodriguez's albums were sold in South Africa, yet no one in America even knew who he was. Because no one knew who he was rumours were spread that he had killed himself on tour. But after years and years 2 fans who just want to know who and where Rodriguez came from. This film follows their story and answers just who Sixto Rodriguez is.

Searching for Sugar Man is a must see for anyone who thinks of themselves as music lovers or who loves a great little detective piece. But if you haven't heard of Sixto Rodriguez go out and watch this film or buy his albums that is if you can find them.

Beckstravaganza

The other night I went to the Rio Theatre in East Van to watch 47 talented musicians play their versions of Beck's new songs. Beck decided to issue 20 songs but the catch he only released the sheet music for them so the only way you can hear them is to play them yourself or get a group of talented people together and play them for you.

The night was sold out and rightfully so. Noah from The Broken Mirrors organized the evening and did an amazing job choosing songs for every preformer. Some of my favourites from the night were Paul Pigat, Hey Ocean, Hilary Grist and The Company Jazz Band. If you love music and want to hear some locals check these guys out!

Midseason Reviews Pt. 2

Banshee airs on Cinemax at 11PM

From the creator of True Blood comes a new action packed show fit for Cinemax. The series follows a con-artist just out of prison and hiding from a mobster named Rabbit. His first task is to find the love of his life, who has a new life and family. In the process he assumes the identity of the new sheriff in Banshee, PA after an unfortunate incident. But the man who really runs the town and the local slaughter house Kai Proctor may be worse than Rabbit. With any Alan Ball creation I always have to give it a few episodes before I decide but for now if you like sex, violence and bad people you'll like Banshee.


The Carrie Diaries airs on The CW at 8PM

This is a "prequel" to one of my favourite shows Sex in the City. This show airs on the CW which can't mean it's going to be good. I mean the only reason I even watch Arrow is because Stephen Amiel is effing hot and has his shirt off more than once. But I guess now that Gossip Girl the network needs a replacement; Carrie Bradshaw in the 80's. This is coming of age story follows 16 year old Carrie the virgin, who just lost her mother to cancer and keeping within the Sex and the City niche, Carrie narrates, has best friends who discuss boys and sex and is interested in the new kid at school.  She even gets a chance to intern in Manhattan which leads to her meeting a style editor at a fashion magazine. And where Carrie makes a new identity for her Manhattan self. There is a reason this is on the CW because it fits perfectly for it's demographic, which I am not.

Midseason TV Reviews

1600 Penn

A sitcom about the first family. Bill Pullman is the president and is newly married to Jenna Elfman; his younger, pretty wife who just wants to get along with her step kids. Stepson Skip played by Josh Gad steals the show with his slacker attitude and rightfully so as the Tony Award Nominee is the co-creater behind this show. But this show just doesn't do anything for me. After all the political satires we've seen this year, 1600 Penn is far from it. I will hand it to NBC for trying to find the next Modern Family. So those of you out there who enjoy This type of humour might find this show enjoyable, for me this is a NO.


Deception

Starring Meagan Good as Joanna, an undercover cop who returns to investigate the death of her once best friend and heiress, whom she grew up with - as a maid's daughter. Joanna moves in with the Bowers. Every member of the high privileged family is flawed and hard to care about. The only one you are routing for is Joanna, especially since Good doesn't over act. But the best part of this show is the flashbacks between the deceased and young Joanna. I won't be watching.

Oscar Noms

Well the list came out this morning and I am quite surprised as I'm sure many critics are. The category that is always the hardest to predict I think is Best Actress. This year there were an abundance of great performances. Marion Cotillard did an amazing job in the French film Rust and Bone, she played a whale trainer that looses her legs in an accident. Rachel Weisz stars in the limited released The Deep Blue Sea as the wife of a British Judge in post WWII who has an affair with Tom Hiddleson. Helen Mirren plays Alma the with of Alfred Hitchcock opposite Anthony Hopkins in Hitchcock. But all these women were not nominated. All the women chosen this year were all deserving. The surprise in this category is Quvenzhane Wallis the little girl who plays Hushpuppy in Beasts of the Southern Wild.

The surprise in the Best Actor category this year is Joaquin Phoenix. But I think the biggest surprise this year is the nominations for Best Director. Both Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow were snubbed and replaced by indie film-makers. Tom Hooper also didn't make the cut this year. Now granted I'm not a Bigelow fan but in past years this category has been in synch with the DGA nominations. However I am great-full the Academy is looking at indie films and film-makers. I'm also glad the Academy is recognizing foreign film-makers outside of the Best Foreign Film category.

And of course the Canadian connection to the Oscars this year. Kim Nguyen, from Montreal directed “Rebelle” aka War Witch which is nominated for best foreign-language film. Mychael Danna, from Toronto, is nominated for best song and best original score for “Life of Pi". Yan England, the Quebec, writer, director and producer of “Henry” is nominated for best live-action short. Ariel Nasr, from Halifax, is the producer of “Buzkashi Boys” nominated as well for best live-action short.


Here are the nominations:

Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director
Michael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Original Screenplay
Amour, Michael Haneke
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Flight, John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal

Best Adapted Screenplay
Argo, Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin,
Life of Pi, David Magee
Lincoln, Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell

Best Animated Feature
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph

Best Cinematography
Anna Karenina, Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained, Robert Richardson
Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda
Lincoln, Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall, Roger Deakins

Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina, Jacqueline Durran
Les Misérables, Paco Delgado
Lincoln, Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror, Eiko Ishioka
Snow White and the Huntsman, Colleen Atwood

Best Documentary Feature
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man

Best Documentary Short
Inocente
Kings Point
Mondays at Racine
Open Heart
Redemption

Best Film Editing
Argo, William Goldenberg
Life of Pi, Tim Squyres
Lincoln, Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook, Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty, Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg

Best Foreign Language Film
Amour, Austria
Kon-Tiki, Norway
No, Chile
A Royal Affair, Denmark
War Witch, Canada

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Hitchcock, Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
Les Misérables, Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

Best Original Score
Anna Karenina, Dario Marianelli
Argo, Alexandre Desplat
Life of Pi, Mychael Danna
Lincoln, John Williams
Skyfall, Thomas Newman

Best Original Song
“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice, music and lyric by J. Ralph
“Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted, music by Walter Murphy; lyric by Seth MacFarlane
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi, music by Mychael Danna; lyric by Bombay Jayashri
“Skyfall” from Skyfall, music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
“Suddenly” from Les Misérables, music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Best Production Design
Anna Karenina, Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
Les Misérables, Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson
Life of Pi, Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Lincoln, Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Best Animated Short
Adam and Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head over Heels
Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”
Paperman

Best Live Action Short
Asad
Buzkashi Boys
Curfew
Death of a Shadow
Henry

Best Sound Editing
Argo, Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
Django Unchained, Wylie Stateman
Life of Pi, Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
Skyfall, Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
Zero Dark Thirty, Paul N.J. Ottosson

Best Sound Mixing
Argo, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
Les Misérables, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
Life of Pi, Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
Lincoln, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
Skyfall, Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson

Best Visual Effects
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
Life of Pi, Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
The Avengers, Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
Prometheus, Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
Snow White and the Huntsman, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson

The Waldorf

One of East Vancouver's cultural hubs is closing this month. The Waldorf will be closing its doors January 20th. It's a shame. The Waldorf has only been reopened for a couple of years and in those years it has created a great place to eat, dance, party, listen to local talent, look at art and even screen local films. Vancouver has been loosing its culture year by year. Last year alone we witnessed the last movie theatre on Granville Street close and one of the best theatre houses close, while other business tried to find new ways to bring people in.

We say we want local talent showcased but with venues closing how is that possible? This is in no thanks to our current city leaders. We should be focusing our efforts on culture, not bike routes. This part of the city is zoned for mix-use commercial purposes not condos. But in the last few months the Hastings and clark area, has had more and more residential developers plopping signs down advertising future condos. For example The Brave Bull House of Steaks, a restaurant that was frequented by port workers and still had $9.99 steaks was sold to developers. 

 May Robertson had this to say “The Waldorf closing is a big loss to Vancouver’s growing creative community … [The] city is exploring ways to support the Waldorf continuing as one of Vancouver’s most unique and vibrant cultural spaces.” But where was he when The Pantages was sold. That was the last vaudeville theatres from that decade in North America. But just because it was in the DTES nobody saved it. That was heritage. I hope someone from the city will speak up and stamp a heritage declaration on this site. The Waldorf's Tiki Bar had been around since the 1940s. The 1955 renovation of the 1947 structure is probably the oldest in existence in Western Canada.

As someone who was born in this city and has lived here my whole life I have seen what could of been a thriving culture turn into high rise condos. It's getting harder and harder for me to recommend fun cultural activities to tourists who are looking for "Vancouver" gems.

Award season

It's that time of year again awards season!

Here's a list of the films you should see. I still even need to catch up.

POSSIBLE NOMINATIONS FOR BEST PICTURE
Amour
Arbitrage
Argo
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Beasts of the Southern Wild
The Deep Blue Sea
Django Unchained
Flight
Hitchcock
The Hobbit
Hyde Park on Hudson
The Impossible
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Moonrise Kingdom
The Paperboy
Quartet
Rust and Bone
The Sessions
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Silver Linings Playbook
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty