NWI Awards: Best Villain

Bad guys have more fun, and here be a selection of the greatest perverts, miscreants and plain out Psychos 2008 had to offer...

Best Villain

10) The King of ward 3, Blindness

It may have been brief, but Gael Garcia Bernal's twitchy King of ward 3 was a truly nasty bastard. But that doesn't mean Bernal doesn't have a ball playing him and in otherwise stately film, it was a very important performance for the film to have.

9) Sloan, Wanted

If only because we got to see the acting world's most sagely man Morgan Freeman say 'Shoot this Motherfucker' A classic moment in cinema history



8) Gordon Northcott, Changeling
Sure, a child molester/murderer isnt that hardest thing in the world to make evil, but Northcott has a particularly creepy Norman Bates vibe that raises him above the norm. A great breakthrough performance from Jason Butler Harner. PS that picture isnt from changeling, but there doesn't seem to be one of hi in that anywhere. Burn

7) Dick Cheney, W.

To the world, Bush may be the bad guy, but in Oliver Stone's W. it is most certainly Cheney, played almost as a scheming bond villain by Richard Dreyfuss. It makes one feel sorry for Dubya that he had to deal with this guy's machinations for so long




6) Margot, Margot at the Wedding

Yet another ice queen to add to Nicole Kidman's resume, but this one has a bit more substance to her, and the way she treat her son more then anything wil appall all who view. Chilling in its credibility




5) Ms Carmody, The Mist
Religious people are crazy! Or so Stephen King seems to think. Whatever the social ramifications, religious crazies make great villains and Marcia Gay Harden's Ms Carmody is no exception. She'll stay with you long after you forget the movie.

4) Daniel Plainview, There will be blood

A man driven by an insatiable greed, selfishness and a complete lack of any kind of empathetic quality. A complicated man, to be sure, but a villain nonetheless. One of the most deserved oscar wins ever for Daniel Day Lewis.

3) Harry Waters, In Bruges

If you had any doubt about how good Ralph Fiennes is, watch this and the Duchess back to back. Check the range on this guy. His Harry in In Bruges is barely more then a cameo, but once he arrives he viciously entertains and scene-steals at this film's resident moralled psycopath.

2) Anton Chigurh, No Country for Old men

' Call it friendo'. Javier Bardem's bounty hunter/hitman/Angel of death roams around the quiet Texan country leaving bodies piling in his wake. In an excellently chilling performance, Bardem gets acquinted with violence for the first time in his career, and who knew he'd be so good at it.




1) The Joker, The Dark Knight

Because was it really going to be anyone else.

NWI Awards: Best Cinematography

As your tutors and family film nerds have no doubt told you, film is visual medium and there's nothing quite like really seeing a movie. So which movies of 2008 were a real feast for the eyes...

Best Cinematography

5) Australia

A film doesn't have to be good to look good, and Australia is living proof of that hypothesis. The film may be a mess, but it sure does make the best of those Australian landscapes.

4) In Bruges

With no real budget, In Bruges makes maximum use of its chosen location which looks just as idyllic and dream-like as was no doubt intended. It contrasts well with the blackly comic tone of the film.

3) The Dark Knight

Nolan's favourite DOP Wally Pfister makes terrific use of Both his Chicago location and his Imax camera, which help to make the action scenes even more astounding. The camera swoops through the city free of restraint, and not in the cheesy way they did it in Heroes.

2) No Country for Old Men

They key to this film's look is the stillness. Sure there's beauty but the camera-work's to the point motif only accentuates the film's Texan Backdrop and variety of 80's buildings. Also the way Javier Bardem is filmed in this film dserves its own award

1) There Will Be Blood
It may have lost the Oscar to the Coen's masterpiece, but this is just as much a film for the ages. And a large part of that is due to the way the 20's oilfields are captured in a mixture of adoration and horror. Also Daniel Day Lewis' performance some.

I just want to see her smile again...

Golden globe nominations.

And here we go..... awards season is upon us, as heralded by the golden globe nomination announcements. Now the golden globes pretty much act as Oscar's retarded cousin, and awful populist movies get recognised here. But judge yest not ye be judged so here is the skinny.

Best picture noms: Curious case of benjamin button, frost/nixon, The reader, Revolutionary road and Slumdog Millionaire

Most shocking news! Cate Blanchett got burned at an awards show, no props for the otherwise raved over button. burned.

Only 1 nom for Dark Knight, congrats to heath ledger. Ominous for oscar prospects though.

This could be David Fincher's oscar year, As his Benjamin button picked up a shitload of nominations.

Most retarded nominations, tom cruise for his 2 minute role in tropic thunder, mamma mia in best musical/comedy, and burn after reading getting nominated in the same category. It rode on its coen name.

Most unexpectedly awesome nominations? James Franco for Pineapple express, Robert downey jr for tropic thunder, Danny Boyle for slumdog millionaire. Boyle may well be up for his first oscar this year. Also In Bruges for best musical/comedy plus two actor noms for colin farrell and brendan gleeson. That film is so much better then you think it will be.

Generally as expected but the lack of respect for the dark knight is worrying. lets hope it comes around

The Dark Knight Oscar update

I still stand by my earlier predictions, but it will be a closer call than first expected. Its most definately building up steam in the Best Picture category, with several muted competators falling by the wayside, such as the Changeling which is been met with middling reviews and thus seems pretty much out of contention. Similarly it seems that TDK has K.O'd fellow summer blockbuster WALL-E, which has had Oscar buzz for well over a year now. It was going to finally break Pixar into the best picture category, but they hadn't counted on The Bat and seeing as Hell will freeze over before they nominate two summer movies, it seems to be goodbye to the robots. The inevitable buzz for Heath Ledger is keeping TDK in everyone's mind, and maybe now a Best picture nom is quite so unattainable. Still would bet against it though.

HORROR WEEK: 7 non-horror characters that with a great leap of reailty-bending could be in a horror movie.

One of the beautiful/terrible things about horror movies is its limited stock of Archetypical characters that seem to be reincarnated into different form with every film. So, throwing logic, reason and any kind of sense out of the window. Here's some regular characters, not born form horror, who could happily make there home there. SPOILER WARNING

1) The Joker, The Dark Knight

The disfigured face, the iconic costume and being generally terrifying? Yep, the Joker is the ultimate slasher movie villain. Granted his intelligence and ability to speak set him apart from the crowd, but wouldn't it be so amazing.

2) Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild

You know the know it all indie kid, who thinks he's smarter then God and has worked out the meaning of life at 16. Whilst Penn's movie portrays him as a messiah, in reality thinking is divided between Messianic and idiot. Anyways, The character in the movie is so insufferable he would be one of those times you secretly want the bad guy to win.

3) Amelie, Amelie

Look at the way she deals with the rude market stall guy. Resourceful, pain-causing and just a little bit sadistic. Amelie would make a proper final girl. You actually would want her to kill the crazy guy in the mask.

4) Lux Lisbon, The Virgin Suicides

The kind of beautiful, unnattainable paridigm of purity that dies in a shroud of mystery. Sounds like an opening scene of a Horror movie to me. The one that sets the scene but has very little to do with the main character or story.

5) Donnie, The Big Lebowski

You know the anonymous other friend of the protagonist, who barely has a line and is either the second or third person to die. That's Donnie.

6) Sister Ruth, Black Narcissus

Horror movies have been cruel to the average crazy slut-bitch. They always seem to be the surrogate villain while the bad guy's in the background and always get a nasty demise. Black Narcissus' Sister Ruth would have fit this bill perfectly For she is perhaps one of the ultimate crazy slut-bitches.

7) John Keating, Dead Poets Society

The smug teacher who tries to get through to apathetic students and then dies as a nerdy writer inacts literary vengeance on all teachers who gave him a C. We all enjoy these scenes a little bit though. And when watching Dead Poets Society you so want that to happen to this bogus dude.

The 'no fun' principle

I've heard it whispered and seen it printed of late, something that greatly befuddles me. It was leveled at The Dark Knight and I've seen it utilised in a few early reviews of the new Bond film Quantam of Solace. These films are great, but are not quite as fun as they should be. I'd love to know what they mean by that, should they be easier to take in? Less hard-hitting? Should they be more forgettable, or is a big film simply not allowed to take itself seriously and thus their lack of bludgeoning irony is their crime. Fun for fun's sake is great, but isn't it a good thing that blockbusters are making an effort to be better films rather then just exist to bring in the money. And its not exactly if these films aren't entertaining, just not cheaply so. The beef then can only be with the darker, more adult tone. Which not to tell the people what to think is a very very very good thing

7 shock deaths that are actually shocking.

Shock deaths are very in right now, having a character die without any real forewarning most definately catches the audience off guard, but doesn't always succeed in terms of making a better movie. Below for your reading pleasure are the times it went off without a hitch. And the times it crashed into the mountain. Needless to say, SPOILER WARNING.




1. Jack Vincennes, LA Confidential

For me the ulitmate shock death moment. No idea it was coming, executed flawlessly and saw the movie's lead (or at least most famous of the leads) dead half way through. The best jump scares come in otherwise elegant movies, and this is amongst the most elegant there is.




2. Rachel Dawes, The Dark Knight

Not really the film's prime focus, granted. But Gyllenhaal's Dawes 2.0 gets a hell of a send-off, in one of the best executed scenes of death ever, suspenseful, powerful and a resolution darker then you thought they had the balls to be.







3. Marion Crane, Psycho

The one that set the ball rolling on this entire cinematic killing philosophy. And even though we all know this happens going in, such is its noteriety, when watching the film you are still caught off guard by Ms Crane's brutal death at the hands of everyone's favourite transvestite serial killer.




4. Tracy Mills, Seven

The picture says it all really. Se7en is so much more then the 'head in the box' movie', but it is a grand-finale that uses the shock death to devastating effect. The world is a grimmer place after viewing this film.






5. Chan Wing Yan, Infernal Affairs

So well staged a shock death is this, that the oscar winning remake The Departed stole it pretty much beat for beat. And why shouldn't they. Still for the sake of originality I've put this one here instead, because they did it first damn it.

P.S this picture has little to with the concerning death, but it looked cool so..





6. Majid, Hidden

Hidden may be in the running for the slowest slow-burn thriller ever, but it's one moment of jolt is more effective then many a quicker movie.
Daniel Auteil arrives at the house of his supposed tormentor, only to find out he's got the wrong guy. And the wrong guy is so appalled he slits his throat then and there. A beautiful WTF moment.




7. Ben, Night of the living Dead

Because we've been through so much already, surely we've earned the sight of seeing our hero Ben walking of into the sunrise unscathed. Well yes, until he gets shot in the head anyway. Cruel, cruel George Romero.

Oscars the Dark Knight REALLY has a chance at

Staying on Bale theme, There has been a lot of buzz on the internet about The Dark Knight's oscar chances. Will it be the 185 million comic book sequel that could? I give my two pennies.

What it could win:

Best supp. actor: Heath Ledger, The buzz around his performance has been so immense that a nomination is a certainty and a win is a high possibility.

Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister, because I've never heard so much talk about IMAX, but the film is something to look at and Pfister definately has a shot at a nomination

Best sound, Editing and all other conceivable tech awards: Some guys, TDK will clean up the Tech's as it will be Oscar's way of rewarding this film without actually rewarding it.

Long shot's:

Best adapted screenplay: Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan: If anything this is the award it deserves, as the script for this film so deftly held the many strands together without imploding on itself. But I think it is unlikely, just because I can't see the academy rewarding a comic book movie for its literary prowess.

Best make-up and costume design: Because Ledger's Joker suit was the shit. As was his Joker make-up . And it would be a good thing for this award to be given to something set out of the 17th century.

No Chance:

Best Picture: Never. It unquestionably deserves to, as the idea that there will be 5 films better then this released within the next 4 months is absurd. But, sorry to say, Never.

Best Director: Christopher Nolan, More likely then a picture nomination but still pretty unlikely. There are too many safer choices.

Any other actors: I'd love to see Aaron Eckhart up here too, but he won't be. Not even close

RANT: Christian Bale's great films, weak roles policy.

Before I go on I'd like it on the record that I think that Bale is one of this generation's greatest actors. His Patrick Bateman is one of the best breakthrough performances. Its distinct, entertaining, terrifying, intelligent and several other superlative adjectives that will have to be implied for the sake of time. But he seems of late to be content to play a gracious second fiddle, albeit in some great movies. Lets take a look.

1. I'm Not There: Plays the flimsiest Dylan incarnation, barely getting any screen time. Better roles go to Heath Ledger, Cate Blanchett and the Child Dylan.

2. 3:10 to Yuma: Plays the stoic rancher to Russell Crowe's scene stealing bad guy. Crowe gets the best lines and the more interesting character. This movie has a ridiculous ending though.

3. The Dark Knight: Shocking, given he has the title role and all, but that's the way it goes. Heath Ledger as everyone knows is astounding and remaining crumbs got to Aaron Eckhart. Bale's Batman takes a backseat. He had the run of the ball in Batman Begins though.

4. Public Enemies: I know this isn't out yet, But Johnny Depp has the Dillinger role, while Bale gets the fed tracking him down. I can't say for sure, but I would bet enough money that this continues the pattern.

There are some exceptions to this rule, but they seem to be in smaller films, like Rescue Dawn or The Machinist. In which Bale shows audiences how great he can be when given a great role. But if he is to take what I think is his rightful position as one of the best he needs another Bateman. Another performance to blow us all away. But something tells me that it won't be in Terminator: Salvation