The Look Up
Film, sports, music, and pop culture. Passion at work.
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I feel like I may have just witnessed the best hour of television so far this year. Unbelievable penultimate episode to Game of Thrones’ second season. The Hound let’s them know.
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Exile on Main St. - Recording Session
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While her most famous single might be that bodyguard song, this one is a personal favourite. On an episode of Letterman in 1985, a 21-year old Whitney performs “Saving All My Love” off her self-titled debut album, and completely shatters the building. You can feel in this moment that an unbelievable talent has arrived. Gone too soon. Rest In Peace Whitney Houston.
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Berenice Bejo is Simply Stunning
Source: Vanity Fair
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]This track has had 150 playsNo Woman, No Cry by Bob Marley“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
Happy Birthday Bob Marley :)
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With the spirit of awards season upon us (Sundance is under way and Oscars noms have been announced), let’s honour some of the characters that the actors play in order to get their awards in the first place. I’d like to introduce a category of my own; the Top Villains on TV 2011! While Luke is a respectful, courageous, morally apt hero, let’s be honest, he wouldn’t be half of what he is if it wasn’t for Vader. We all watched The Dark Knight to see Heath strut around as the Joker, not Bale give the worst Batman voice of all time. While contemporary standards ask for the celebration of Heros, sorry, but Villains are just that much more interesting. So without further adieu, in the spirit of every single type of End-of-the-Year list that we’ve recently had to endure with the passing of 2011, I bring you the Top 5 Villains of the past television season! Enjoy!
(WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS. If you do not follow the certain show, DO NOT read about it)
5. Joffrey Baratheon/Lannister - Game of Thrones (2011)
“…But they the soft hearts of women, so long as I am your King, treason shall never go unpunished. Ser Illyn….bring me his head!”
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So the Oscar nominations were officially announced yesterday, and while for a good part of my life I have always waited in anticipation to see which of my predictions came true, this year I haven’t really been all that interested. Truth be told, I haven’t really been interested in the Oscars ever since the Academy decided it would be a good idea to replace the 5 film Best Picture category with 10 films instead, citing that it wanted to go back to its roots and honor 10 films like it once did. Of course, that “once did” was about 70 years ago, when Casablanca won Best Picture over, for what would be the last time in awhile, 9 other films. We all know that the real reason for this change was to get more ratings, to get more films into the biggest award of the night and to attract a more diverse set of viewers. More nominations allows for blockbusters movies like The Dark Knight and District 9 to join the exclusive group of films that includes the likes of Lawrence of Arabia, Gone With The Wind, and The Godfather. Best Picture has always been about excellence in all categories of film, and with the increase in nominations, we see films with as few as 2 total nominations (e.g. the easily forgettable A Serious Man that was nominated in 2009) getting recognized in the field.
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Rooney Mara as Alex DeLarge.
The New York Times recently released an end of the year homage to cinematic villains. The biggest film stars of this year gather to recreate some of the most legendary and villainous characters of all time. Included in the ensemble are Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Glenn Close, and of course, my favourite of the group, Rooney Mara as Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange (1971). Stanley would be proud.
Here’s the link to the gallery. For those having troubles pinpointing the characters to their respective clips, here’s a short lesson on cinematic history. Enjoy!
