The Illusionist

☆☆1/2

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“The Illusionist” (written and directed by Sylvain Chomet - “The Triplets of Belleville”) is the Oscar nominated story of an aging magician forced to travel from town to town and country to country to find opportunities to perform his act. At a stop in Scotland he meets Alice, a young girl who follows him to his next job in Edinburgh. The two develop a father daughter relationship…
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that is reminiscent of the children’s story “The Giving Tree” (Shel Silverstein). The girl continues to ask for more and more of the illusionist (shoes, dresses, coats)…who continues to give and is happy…but not really.

Rated PG
1 hr. 23 min.

Visit the website and see the trailer.

Academy Award Nominations 2011

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids are All Right
The King's Speech
The Social Network
The Town
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone




Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening (The Kids are All Right)
Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem (Biutiful)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
James Franco (127 Hours)
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)


Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale (The Fighter)
John Hawkes (Winter's Bone)
Jeremy Renner (The Town)
Mark Ruffalo (The Kids are All Right)
Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams (The Fighter)
Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech)
Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)

Achievement in Directing
Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
David O. Russell (The Fighter)
Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

Best Documentary Short Subject
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

Best Short Film (Animated)
Day & Night Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let's Pollute Geefwee Boedoe
The Lost Thing Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary) Bastien Dubois

Best Short Film (Live Action)
The Confession Tanel Toom
The Crush Michael Creagh
God of Love Luke Matheny
Na Wewe Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143 Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Achievement in Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Inception
The King's Speech
True Grit

Achievement in Cinematography
Black Swan (Matthew Libatique)
Inception (Wally Pfister)
The King's Speech (Danny Cohen)
The Social Network (Jeff Cronenweth)
True Grit (Roger Deakins)


Achievement in Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland (Colleen Atwood)
I Am Love (Antonella Cannarozzi)
The King's Speech (Jenny Beaven)
The Tempest (Sandy Powell)
True Grit (Mary Zophres)


Best Documentary Feature
Exit through the Gift Shop Banksy, director (Paranoid Pictures)
Gasland Josh Fox, director (Gasland Productions, LLC)
Inside Job Charles Ferguson, director (Representational Pictures)
Restrepo Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, directors (Outpost Films)
Waste Land Lucy Walker, director (Almega Projects)

Achievement in Makeup
Barney's Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman


Achievement in Film Editing
Black Swan (Andrew Weisblum)
The Fighter (Pamela Martin)
The King's Speech (Tariq Anwar)
127 Hours (Jon Harris)
The Social Network (Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall)

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Hors la Loi (Algeria)

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
How to Train Your Dragon (John Powell)
Inception (Hans Zimmer)
The King's Speech (Alexandre Desplat)
127 Hours (A.R. Rahman)
The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross)

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)
"Coming Home" from Country Strong Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
"I See the Light" from Tangled Music and Lyric by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
"If I Rise" from 127 Hours Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
"We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3 Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Achievement in Sound Editing
Inception
Toy Story 3
TRON: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable

Achievement in Sound Mixing
Inception
The King's Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

Achievement in Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Hereafter
Inception
Iron Man 2

Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours (Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle)
The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin)
Toy Story 3 (Michael Arndt, story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich)
True Grit (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
Winter's Bone (Debra Granik and Anne Rossellini)

Original Screenplay
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
The Fighter (Paul Attanasio, Lewis Colich, Eric Johnson, Scott Silverand Paul Tamasy)
Inception (Christopher Nolan)
The Kids are All Right (Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko)
The King's Speech (David Seidler)

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Blue Valentine

☆☆☆☆
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Blue Valentine is an intimate story that moves between a couple’s past and present. Filmmaker Derek Cianfrance skillfully captures the early years when Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) enjoyed a passionate romance…as well as their current fight to hold together a dying relationship.
Look for Oscar nominations for Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling who give two of the most outstanding performances of the year…natural, raw, and believable.
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This romantic drama is one to add to the list of depressing films.

Rated R
1 hr. 52 min.

Visit the website and see the trailer.

Rabbit Hole

☆☆☆☆☆


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“Rabbit Hole” (based on the play by David Lindsay-Abaire) is the gripping drama about, Becca and Howie Corbett, a married couple dealing with the accidental death of their young son.

Director…John Cameron Mitchell manages to avoid what could be a gloomy story…by providing hope and a few smiles along the way.

Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, and Dianne Wiest give outstanding performances in one of the best films of the year.
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Don’t feel guilty about having a few laughs.


Rated PG-13
1 hr. 31 min.

Visit the Rabbit Hole website and watch the trailer.

True Grit

☆☆☆☆

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In this entertaining and well-acted western drama, Joel and Ethan Coen give us a fresh new adaptation of Charles Portis' original novel.
Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) hires a drunken U.S. Marshal, Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to find her father’s killer, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin).
Texas Ranger, LeBoeuf (Matt Damon) joins Ross and Cogburn in the hunt.

Expect nominations for Bridges, Damon, and possibly Steinfeld.
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Slow Start
A Few Violent Scenes

Rated PG-13
1 hr. 50 min.

Visit the movie website and watch the trailer!