Award Contenders

   September has finally arrived (and not a moment too soon)!  For my fellow Oscar geeks that means the awards season is about to officially kick off!  For many, including myself, this is the best time of the year.  Not only are we about to finally see many of the films we have been hearing about since spring, but the weather is cooling down, football is kicking off, and school is starting back up (which means less noisy kids/teens in theatres!!  Woo-hoo!!).

   There will be many movies coming to us shortly, almost too many to keep up with in fact.  Hopefully they will all be worth seeing, but we will know sooner than later from all of the film festival buzz which to move to the front of the list, and which to drop to the bottom.  Before the reports start pouring in, I thought it would be fun to list the 20 films I am most looking forward to.  Some are on the list for the Oscar hype, others make the list purely out of entertainment value.

   Be sure to leave a list of the films you are most looking forward to in the comments section at the top of the post.

   See my 20 most anticipated films for the remainder of 2010 after the jump…
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   I hope everyone had an excellent and long Fourth of July weekend.  I did.  But I am glad to be done with the fireworks and the parades until next year.

   Unless, of course, we are talking about the parade I am about to throw for the most anticipated film of the summer (or maybe the entire year).  Of course I am talking about Christopher Nolan’s (director of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) Inception, whose all-star cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Michael Caine, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Pete Postlethwaite, and Lukas Haas.

   While Inception is not due out until the 16th of this month, the early reviews are beginning to pour in.  And thank God, it seems we FINALLY have something to be excited about this summer in movieland. 

   Here are several quotations from a few of my favorite critics:

   From Thompson on Hollywood, Anne Thompson writes:

No movie this year comes freighted with greater expectations than Inception, Chris Nolan’s follow-up to the global blockbuster The Dark Knight.  Happily, the movie delivers and then some—thanks to clever original screenwriting and exhilarating mise-en-scene—in 2D.

When it opens July 16, this eye-popping film will wow moviegoers all over the world—its complexities will only encourage debate and repeat viewings—and should also score well with critics and year-end awards groups. Oscar nominations in technical categories are a certainty, but Inception is also a strong contender for multiple nominations, including Best Picture.

Imagine a film being made in 2010 where you have absolutely no idea where it is going or how it will end.  These were the worlds created by revolutionary filmmakers, like Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, David Cronenberg and David Lynch.  With Inception we have a film and a filmmaker that has broken new ground and very nearly reinvented the form and he did it all without 3-D.  Nolan gets there on the power of the story – and his vision was realized with the aid of the usual suspects -  Wally Pfister’s cinematography, Hans Zimmer’s unbelievable score – the art direction, the visual effects – see it on IMAX and it will blow your mind. 

   See the more reviews after the jump…

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   Academy Award nominated actress Carey Mulligan (An Education) has been cast as Eliza Dolittle in a remake of the 1964 Best Picture winning film, My Fair Lady.  Shakespeare in Love director, Joe Madden, will helm the film, and Emma Thompson is reported to be writing the script. 

   First off, why do we need to continue to see remakes of these classics?  The majority of them don’t even work (think Psycho, with Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates;  now shrug it off).  I’d rather have these talents collaborate on a new era of film than try to reincarnate the past.  I guess I’m just tired of all the remakes, sequels and recycled themes that we see so often nowadays.

   That being said, could they have made a better choice to play Audrey Hepburn’s classic character?  Carey Mulligan is such a rising star.  The only question now is: Who will play Professor Henry Higgins?  Hugh Grant?  Colin Firth?  Just you wait.

   Fifteen years ago, the Academy Awards failed to properly recognize what has been called one of the greatest films of that decade, the documentary Hoop Dreams.  The amazing, true life story of two boys singled out for their basketball skills at a young age and groomed for what seemed to be long careers in the pro ranks, was recently named by the International Documentary Association as the best documentary in film history.  Film critic Roger Ebert named the movie the best film of 1994 — ahead of such landmarks as Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, and The Shawshank Redemption — and later named it the greatest film of the decade.  Certainly, a film with such high praise would have been nominated for Best Documentary, even though it didn’t win, right?  Sadly, that was not the case; Hoop Dreams was not even nominated for Best Documentary.

Read more after the jump…
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   Yesterday, I gave you the bad news first with my Top 10 Worst Dressed list from this year’s Oscars and today we have the 10 ladies who got it right.  Again, almost all of my ‘Best’ choices can be found on other‘s ‘Worst’ lists, further highlighting just how subjective fashion can be – unless you‘re wearing a swan dress, in which case everyone can agree you failed.

   And now, keeping in line with the short and sweet theme, the winners of Best Dressed are…

   See Chelsea’s 10 Best Dressed after the jump…
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   I think one of my favorite parts from Sunday night’s show was Tom Hanks’ quick and to-the-point presentation of the Best Picture award.  So, in keeping with that tradition, I will get right to my Top 10 Worst Dressed picks from the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.  And, as always, I would love to know what you think.

   The good news is that it was actually pretty hard to find 10 dresses to deem the worst of the night.  I think that just further adds to my feeling that this decade will continue to make up for the last 20+ years of fashion.  In fact, every dress I have on the Worst list can be found on quite a few Best lists out there.  It seems people were split across the board.

   See Chelsea’s Top 10 Worst Dresses after the jump…
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   Ok, you get to list any three categories with the winner you would LOVE to see win!  You can pick something that is a favorite to win, a longshot to win, or has no chance at the win.  I’d love to hear what three things you would love to see happen the most on Oscar night! 

  My wish list:

                   1.  Inglourious Basterds wins Best Picture

                   2.  “The Weary Kind” wins Best Song

                   3.  Gabourey Sidibe wins Best Actress

Earlier it was mentioned that Alice in Wonderland hits theatres this Friday. While I am really excited to see the film, I am also excited to share two great videos from an AMAZING makeup artist.
Kandee Johnson (NO relation) is a freelance makeup artist that has worked in magazines, television and film (now has her very own Imdb.com page). A while back, she started making video tutorials and put them on youtube to test the response. The were an instant hit! Since then she has her own youtube channel and started holding “glaminars”.

Her talent covers a broad spectrem, from every day makeup, special occasions to her favorite ( mine, too!) – costume.

Kandee is uber sweet, quirky and just plain fun.  Sometimes you’ll even get her to sing for you or add her silly out takes. I hope you enjoy!

She did an Avatar one, too. I’ll post that one soon