The Academy Awards: The REAL Winners and Losers

It was a weird night of television, and, as we predicted and despite a Best Director snub, Argo won Best Picture at the Academy Awards last night/this morning, and most of the other people who were going to win Oscars won Oscars. Instead of looking at the winners and losers, we're going to look at the real winners and losers, the people/trends that really stood out during the ceremony:

Quick Reviews: Best Picture Nominees, Part 3 of 3

Where did we leave off? We've looked at the films nominated for Best Picture about LOVE, and we've looked at the films nominated for Best Picture about AMERICAN HISTORY.  So, we guess it's time to look at the straggler films, the films that don't really fall into any category. We were thinking of calling them ‘Magical Realist’ films, because most of them employ magical elements within a realistic framework. One has pig-monsters as big as a house, the other has a house for two that's no bigger than a boat, and a third has truly terrible singing from Russell Crowe. The third is probably the most magical, because, as someone once said, nothing is more magical than singing! (Just because that person was Hitler doesn't mean that it isn't true)

Now that we think of it, though, the thing all these films might have in common is that they all feature water and boats in a big way. Boats that are massively important in these movies, whether people are living, pulling, or adventuring in them. So here we go, looking at Beasts of the Southern Wild, Life of Pi, and Les Miserables. Let's climb aboard the review boat! Raise the anchor, full speed ahead!

Life of Pi - Official Trailer

Here comes the first official trailer from Ang Lee's Life of Pi, and it is the most beautiful trailer that we have seen in quite some time. While there isn't much plot given in this trailer (shipwreck, tiger boat, phosphorescent whale), we are treated to some seriously sumptuous visuals. It's a feast for the eyes!

We're big fans of Ang Lee here at Tableau Your Mind, but our (well-documented) excitement for this film is really tied to our love of the book on which the film is based. It's definitely one of our favorites.

So, enjoy, and [Mini Spoiler Alert] ponder whether the epilogue to the novel will make it into the film:

Life of Pi: Totally Tiny Teaser Trailer

I really hate for two posts in a row to be just links to YouTube videos, but seeing this super tiny teaser trailer for Life of Pi made me so excited that I had to post something.

Life of Pi the movie (directed by Ang Lee) is based of Life of Pi the book, one of the most stirring, emotionally daring, and thoughtfully melancholic pieces of literature that has been written. Ever. In terms of amazing, pseudo-biographies, I'm even putting it above the highly praised Matt Damon: An Unauthorized Biography (yeah, I went there).

Published in 2001 and written by Yann Martel, Life of Pi tells the story of Pi, a well-meaning boy tossed into the sea with a rag-tag bunch of zoo animals as his only companions. Where nothing is as simple or as dangerous as it once appears, Martel crafts a compelling world from the simplest and silliest of constructs. And it's devastatingly sad. Haunting, even.

I'm interested to see what Ang Lee does with the material. He's great at underplaying moments and creating tension through silence. So, as of right now, color me thrilled.

Life of Pi opens in November 2012