Pardis Parker » Arts

From E: The greatest thing you’ll see today

pardis — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:20:16 +0000

Kristen Bell, Ellen DeGeneres, Dax Shepard, and a sloth:

You have to listen to these – classic hip-hop with new instrumentation composed and arranged by Streets By Night

pardis — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:32:32 +0000

Man, I love how these sound. Canadian composer/producer Streets by Night has just released his five track album, Acappella Sessions Vol. 1, that takes songs from Jay-Z (Song Cry), 2 Pac (Me Against the World), Aaliyah (Are You That Somebody?), Notorious B.I.G. (Everyday Struggle), and Nas (It Ain’t Hard to Tell), and sets them to new instrumentation. The album turns five classic hip-hop tracks into beautiful, haunting ballads. You have to listen yourself to get a feel for them, but I’m hooked. Can’t wait to hear the next five he does.

Here’s the Aaliyah track:

Click here to download the full album for free.

My Golden Globes predictions

pardis — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:34:23 +0000

So here’s my list of who I think will win at tonight’s Golden Globe Awards, not necessarily of who I think should win.

UPDATE: Winners in Amber!

Best Motion Picture – Drama
The Descendants * Well, it was either this or Hugo. So I was half right?
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

The only film I haven’t yet seen among the nominees is War Horse, but of the other five nominees, Hugo seems likes the strongest contender (Steven Spielberg wasn’t even nominated for Best Director). The Descendants is the only other possibility I can see of the five. No clue how War Horse stacks up.

Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture – Drama
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady * I knew. Somehow I just knew.
Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin

I’m poorly equipped to predict this category. I haven’t yet seen four of the five performances, but my suspicion is that Meryl Streep will win, you know, because she’s Meryl Streep. Tilda Swinton would be my second choice.

Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture – Drama
George Clooney, The Descendants * I knew. Somehow I just knew. (again)
Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Ryan Gosling, The Ides of March
Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Although I think George Clooney will win, Michael Fassbender is the more deserving nominee. His performance in Shame is incredible, and Clooney’s performance in The Descendants paled in comparison to his Golden Globe-nominated turn in Michael Clayton (when he rightfully lost to Daniel Day-Lewis).

Best Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical
50/50
The Artist * Boom.
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris
My Week With Marilyn

Toughest category to predict, probably. I think The Artist gets the win here (even though I haven’t yet seen it), but Midnight in Paris and Bridesmaids could easily win, as well. Of the four films I did see in this category, 50/50 was probably my favourite, just narrowly besting My Week With Marilyn.

Best Performance By An Actress in A Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical
Jodie Foster, Carnage
Charlize Theron, Young Adult
Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn * A worthy winner.
Kate Winslet, Carnage

Again, I’m poorly equipped for this category, but my suspicion is that Charlize Theron has the inside track in this one.

Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical
Jean Dujardin, The Artist * I was right!
Brendan Gleeson, The Guard
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50
Ryan Gosling, Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Owen Wilson, Midnight in Paris

Easiest category to predict? I don’t think anyone else has a chance against Jean Dujardin.

Best Animated Feature Film
The Adventures of Tintin * Surprising, but more deserving than Rango.
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

Another tough one, mostly since I enjoyed neither Rango nor The Adventures of Tintin, but my guess is that Rango takes the honours.

Best Foreign Language Film
The Flowers of War (China)
In the Land of Blood and Honey (USA)
The Kid With A Bike (Belgium)
A Separation (Iran) * Iran! Iran!
The Skin I Live In (Spain)

Based on awards-season buzz, my guess is A Separation. Really wish I had seen The Skin I Live In, though.

Best Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role In A Motion Picture
Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help * See? I’m not that bad!
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

Octavia Spencer appears to have the award locked. She was good in The Help, but I really wish the film itself was better.

Best Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role In A Motion Picture
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Albert Brooks, Drive
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method
Christopher Plummer, Beginners * Really happy he won.

Although I loved Albert Brooks in Drive, Christopher Plummer was fantastic in Beginners. It’s a shame the film hasn’t received more attention this year.

Best Director – Motion Picture
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
George Clooney, The Ides of March
Michel Hazanvicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo * Well, I guess I was wrong.

Well, this is tough, but I think Michel Hazanvicius wins over Martin Scorsese mostly for being so daring with The Artist (even though it’s the only film of the five nominees that I haven’t actually seen). Woody Allen and Alexander Payne are both dark horse contenders, but I think they only really have a chance if either of their films win its respective Best Motion Picture category.

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris * Hmm. Interesting win.
George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon, The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, The Descendants
Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, Moneyball

I love Aaron Sorkin, but The Descendants was a great script. I suspect it’ll get the nod.

Best Original Score – Motion Picture
Ludovic Bource, The Artist * Good? Good.
Abel Korzeniowski, W.E.
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Howard Shore, Hugo
John Williams, War Horse

Another category I’m poorly equipped for. You can’t go wrong betting on John Williams, though, right?

Best Original Song – Motion Picture
“Hello Hello” - Gnomeo & Juliet
“The Keeper” - Machine Gun Preacher
“Lay Your Head Down” - Albert Nobbs
“The Living Proof” - The Help
“Masterpiece” - W.E. * Sure.

Umm…sure.

One of my favourite films: 7:35 de la Mañana by Nacho Vigalondo

pardis — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:56:59 +0000

I’m surprised I haven’t posted this in the past, but this is one of my favourite films, 7:35 de la Mañana (7:35 in the Morning), by Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo, nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 2004 Academy Awards (click on the CC in the bottom right of the YouTube player to enable English subtitles):

I’ve also seen the short film that won the Oscar that year, Wasp, by English director Andrea Arnold, but I heavily favour 7:35 de la Mañana. (Wasp is available on Vimeo)

New building designed by Lydon Lynch architects proposed for Barrington Street’s CD Plus building

pardis — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:27:20 +0000

This is probably only going to be of interest to people from Halifax, but the old building that currently houses CD Plus on Barrington Street has been targeted for redevelopment.

The proposal for the new building, owned by Toronto developer Starfish Properties, has been designed by Halifax architecture firm Lydon Lynch. The final construction is intended to sport approximately 2000 square feet of street-level retail topped by five floors of office space and a rooftop terrace. Not too shabby.

I spent a lot of time in this area growing up, and it excites me to see that the street’s long-promised revitalization is slowly starting to take shape. Let’s hope they’re able to move forward with this building quickly.

God bless the writers at The Daily Show

pardis — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:53:55 +0000

On last night’s episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart and Aasif Mandvi did a brilliant segment on the controversy surrounding TLC’s All-American Muslim, and the decision by American hardware store chain Lowe’s to pull its advertising from the show following complaints from groups like the Florida Family Association that the show was dangerous because it only showed normal Muslims, and not the crazy ones.

I’ve returned to The Daily Show over the past year, and I have to say, nearly 13 years after first taking over for Craig Kilborn, Stewart and his teams of writers and correspondents still manage to knock it out of the park on a nightly basis. It’s without a doubt one of the best TV shows we’ve had over the past decade. Their ability to identify and expose absurdity, day in, day out, is, as far as I can tell, without parallel. Good on’ em.

Here’s the All-American Muslim segment from last night:

And here’s a clip from All-American Muslim itself:

G.I. Joe: Retaliation might be better than G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

pardis — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:09:07 +0000

Here’s the first trailer for GI Joe: Retaliation, directed by Jon M. Chu (director of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and the incomparable Step Up 2: The Streets), written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (of Zombieland fame), and starring Dwayne Johnson as Roadblock, Channing Tatum as Duke, Ray Park as Snake Eyes, and Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow:

The big difference appears to be on the special effects side, with the trailer suggesting that the film will use more practical effects than its predecessor did. I thought the original, directed by Stephen Sommers (director of Sahara), was a load of ridiculous fun for the first half, but then got too silly with all the cheesy computer generated effects in the second half. I don’t mind believing that there’s an underwater bad guy base in the arctic as long as I can believe that what I’m looking at is real water, youknowwhatImean?

The sequel comes out next summer.

Bravo, Noah.

pardis — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 04:27:11 +0000

The brilliant music video for Rich Aucoin’s It, off his new album, Public Publication, directed by Noah Pink, with stunning spot-on cinematography by Christopher Porter:

It’s been rightfully hailed by toronto.com as “one of the greatest music videos of the year.”

Liam Neeson vs Wolves

pardis — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:58:56 +0000

The trailer for The Grey, directed by Joe Carnahan and starring Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney, Dallas Roberts, Joe Anderson, James Badge Dale, and Nonso Anozie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9CgACOA-Fc

Best part about the trailer has to be how happy Grillo is in the intro with Neeson. It’s always nice to see actors who genuinely appreciate and enjoy the work they get to do. Good on him.

Address is Approximate, a beautiful Google Street View stop motion animation short film by Tom Jenkins

pardis — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:06:32 +0000

Tom Jenkins, co-founder of the UK’s Theory Films, directed this beautiful stop motion short film about a lonely desk toy that uses a toy car and Google Maps Street View to escape the dark confines of the office. Music is Arrival of the Birds by Cinematic Orchestra.

On his Facebook page, Jenkins posted some behind-the-scenes making-of shots: