THREE POSTS by Alex Bucsis *
First and foremost I think that I'll start out the post with the Oscar highlights. So here we go:

#1- Oscar Night
WOW! Big surprise in the best picture category. Crash won the best picture category at Sunday night's 78th annual Academy Awards ceremony. I, as well as probably everybody, expected Brokeback Mountain to win especially after Ang Lee won best director. Until recently started hearing a lot of buzz around Crash and how it could be the dark horse to take the prize, I never expected Crash to win. Needless to say it was a big surprise. Although I thought Munich should have won, it was a nice surprise to see someone take the award from Brokeback Mountain because of all the attention it was getting. I really enjoyed Crash when I first saw it a few months ago (my dad really liked it and was hoping it would win). Ang Lee won director making him the first non-white male to ever win. Most of my predictions turned out true but there were a few minor categories that I was off on. All in all it was a good night because a few of the nominees that I wanted to win did, in fact, win. Click here for my picks and predictions. I also really enjoyed Jon Stewart as the night's host. He was very funny and I also liked the ads for the various nominees, I found them to be very funny. Here is the full list of winners at the 78th Academy awards...

-picture- Crash

-director- Ang Lee

-actor- Phillip Seymour Hoffman

-actress- Reese Witherspoon

-supporting actor- George Clooney

-supporting actress- Rachel Weisz

-original screenplay- Crash

-adapted screenplay- Brokeback Mountain

-animated feature film- Wallace & Gromit: Curse Of The Ware-Rabbit

-costume design- Memoirs Of A Geisha

-foreign film- Tsotsi

-cinematography- Memoirs Of A Geisha

-editing- Crash

-documentary- March Of The Penguins

-documentary short- A Note Of Triumph: The Golden Age Of Norman Corwin

-makeup- The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe

-original song- "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp"

-original score- Brokeback Mountain

-sound editing- King Kong

-animated short film- The Moon And The Son: An Imagined Conversation

-live action short film- Six Shooter

-art direction- Memoirs Of A Geisha

-visual effects- King Kong

-sound mixing- King Kong

-lifetime achievement award- Robert Altman There you have it, all the awards of the night.
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#2- La Bataille d'Alger (The Battle Of Algiers)
I recently saw La Bataille d'Alger (The Battle Of Algiers) and I was blown away. This film was incredible, to say the least. Gillo Pontecorvo, the director, has created a masterpiece of modern cinema. The film chronicles the struggle of the Algerian people to gain freedom from the occupying French in the 1950's. The film recreates a key year in the struggle by showing how groups like the Front De Liberation Nationale (FLN) form in the Algiers and Casbah and resort to extremes, such as blowing up cafes and killing innocent people, to get the freedom that they crave. The film follows Saadi Yacef (although in the film he plays El-Hadi Jaffar, a character based on him) Ali La Pointe, and the rest of the FLN as they rally for Algerian freedom. The film was made in 1966, shortly after the Algerians received their freedom from France. The way the film is made forces you to sympathize with both French and Algerians. I feel as if I can relate this to, the more recent, Munich in that sense because they both convey the same emotions. The film does a good job of showing the lengths people will go to in order to get their way when put in a difficult situation. Escalating violence on both sides, children shooting soldiers at point-blank range, women planting bombs in cafes, Authority resorting to torture to break the will of insurgents- these are just some brutal acts you come across in the powerful film. The score of the film is also excellent, it is very simple yet suits the movie very well.

The film is shot in a documentary style in the streets of Algiers. It is a case study of modern combat showing the terrorist attacks and brutal techniques used in combat. This is a tour de force with astonishing relevance though the film sounds extremely violent, it isn't terribly gory and passes of with only a 14A rating. With great directors like Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh and Oliver Stone singing its praises and telling of the film's influence and importance it is tough not to be drawn in. Steven Soderbergh even went as far as to say that when he was making Traffic he made the cast and crew watch films like The Battle Of Algiers and The French Connection because that is the kind of movie he wanted Traffic to be. After the film it is easy to understand why it is part of the Criterion Collection. After seeing how good the film was I really wanted to buy it. The Criterion Collection set comes with a 56 page book and 3 DVD's. I would recommend this film to anyone who likes great movies.

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#3- January/February Movie Journal

Last but not least I wanted to include my movie journal for the months of January and February. The reason I include January is because I forgot to post it in January. In January, because of finals, I didn't watch a lot of movies but in February I watched quite a bit of films. Here are the movies I watched in the last two months.
-The films are rated out of five (5) stars.
January 2006
-Citizen Kane (1941) directed by Orson Welles- * * * * *
-Munich (2005) directed by Steven Spielberg- * * * * *
-Schindler's List (1993) directed by Steven Spielberg- * * * * *
-Minority Report (2002) directed by Steven Spielberg- * * * * *
-Wedding Crashers (2005) directed by David Dobkin- * * * *
-The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) directed by Judd Apatow- * * * *
-Lord Of War (2005) directed by Andrew Niccol- * * *
-Pride And Prejudice (2005) directed by Joe Wright- * * * *
-Syriana (2005) directed by Stephen Gaghan- * * * *
-Crash (2005) directed by Paul Haggis- * * * *
- Almost Famous (2000) directed by Cameron Crowe- * * * * *
-Matchstick Men (2003) directed by Ridley Scott- * * * *

February 2006
3-I Heart Huckabees (2004) directed by David O. Russel- * * * *
4-Capote(2005) directed by Bennet Miller- * * * *
12-The Matrix (1999) directed by Larry/Andy Wachowski- * * * *
12-The Sum Of All Fears (2002) directed by Phil Alden Robinson- * * *
14-The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004) directed by Wes Anderson- * * * *
14-A Charlie Brown Valentine ( ) directed by Bill Melendez- * * * *
15-Spirited Away (2001) directed by Hayao Miyazaki- * * * *
15-Lost In Translation (2003) directed by Sofia Coppola- * * * *
16-Psycho (1960) directed by Alfred Hitchcock- * * * * *
16-Bottle Rocket (1996) directed by Wes Anderson- * * * *
16-Dial M For Murder (1955) directed by Alfred Hitchcock- * * * * *
17-North By Northwest (1959) directed by Alfred Hithcock- * * * * *
17-This Is Spinal Tap (1984) directed by Rob Reiner- * * * * *
17-The Wrong Man (1956) directed by Alfred Hitchcock- * * * *
18-Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi (1983) directed by Richard Marquand- * * * * *
18-Stage Fright (1950) directed by Alfred Hitchcock- * * * *
18-The Maltese Falcon (1941) directed by John Huston- * * * * *
19-Foreign Correspondent (1940) directed by Alfred Hitchcock- * * * * *
19-Adaptation (2002) directed by Spike Jonze- * * * *
20-The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (2004) directed by Stephen Hillenburg- * * * *
21-Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi (1983) directed by Richard Marquand- * * * * *
22-Princess Mononoke (1997) directed by Hayao Miyazaki- * * * * *
23-The Sixth Sense (1999) directed by M. Night Shyamalan- * * * *
23-A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) directed by Steven Spielberg- * * * * *
25-Saving Private Ryan (1998) directed by Steven Spielberg- * * * * *
27-A Beautiful Mind (2001) directed by Ron Howard- * * * * *
27-The Beatles: A Hard Day's Night (1964) directed by Richard Lester- * * * * *
28-Strangers On A Train (1951) directed by Alfred Hitchcock- * * * * *

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* Wes Anderson fans may recognize this title from The Royal Tenenbaums because it is very similar to the title of Margot's book of plays. I changed the title from THREE PLAYS by Margot Tenenbaum to THREE POSTS by Alex Bucsis.

NOTE: I will most likely post a review of Good Night, And Good Luck after I see it. I was going to go last Friday but, even though it was supposed to be, it wasn't showing and hasn't played yet. I am getting very frustrated with Broadway theater. They better shape up soon because it is making me very angry. I, and everyone that wants to see it, wouldn't be in this predicament if it was playing at Pacific cinemas, the theater that I would have picked if I had had a say in the matter.


-Alex