A Separation

A Separation is an Iranian film which deals with the fallout of a married couple's difficult decision over whether they improve the life of their child by moving to another country or stay in Iran and care for a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimers.

A tragic event soon leads to the taut and utterly engaging A Separation bouncing between thriller and courtroom drama. The film, directed by Asghar Farhadi, is fascinating in that, while it deals with an world completely alien to most - Iranian family life, its religion and the chaos of its legal system - ultimately the themes at the heart of the tale are universal. There are so many questions asked, so many moral issues raised. When is it okay to lie? What constitutes sinning?

Simin wants to leave Iran with her husband Nader and daughter Termeh. When Nadar refuses, she moves back to her parental home in protest. Nadar remains torn between loyalty to his Alzheimers-ridden father and trying to save his marriage, while Termeh just wants her parents to get back together. When Nadar hires a maid to look after his father, he introduces a whole new world of problems into his own and, as events spiral, the swim against the tide of turmoil that all the characters face is a futile one. Crucially, the lines between who the audience is supposed to sympathise with become increasingly blurred.

This tense, beautifully scripted and directed picture offers gritty, believable and exceptional performances across the entire cast. It will win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It deserves it.

POST OSCARS UPDATE: Told you so!

Review by Bobby Townsend

The Help

Last Friday, Bobby's thoughts on The Help were featured on BBC Radio Five Live's flagship film programme: Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Review. Upon hearing it, we jumped around Bobbysix Towers like schoolgirls dancing to Bros (that's a contemporary pop reference, right?). Here's an elongated review:

The Help tells the story of an aspiring author (played by the ever-amazing Emma Stone) during the civil rights movement of the 1960's, who decides to write a book from the perspective of the many African-American maids that work for white families in the neighbourhood.

While this story of daily hardship, oppression, racism, friendship and morality is overt in its audience manipulation and certainly has both eyes focused firmly on The Oscars, the performances are fantastic, pretty much across the board. Stone especially continues to establish herself as a really fine actor and, to be honest, if she simply read from the phone book for a couple of hours, it would probably still be enrapturing. There are also fine, utterly believable turns from Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.

A little long at 146 minutes, and clearly Oscar fodder, The Help may tug on the heart strings with mathematical precision, but tug on them it undoubtedly does.

Review by Bobby Townsend.

The Oscars 2011 - How did we do?

Last night, the Academy Awards took place. A few weeks ago we confidently and rather arrogantly made our predictions as to who would be the big winners. So, how did we do? Well, let's find out, shall we?

BEST PICTURE
The winner was: The King's Speech
Were we right?
We couldn't have been more wrong. We hedged our bets and mentioned three films when predicting this category. Toy Story 3, Inception and The Social Network. Pretty pathetic predicting really. We stand by the fact that Toy Story 3 was the best film though.

BEST ACTOR
The winner was: Colin Firth - The King's Speech
Were we right?
Emphatically, yes. We said, "Sometimes the Oscars throw up dead certs. Colin Firth will win Best Actor. No doubt." Well done us.

BEST DIRECTOR
The winner was: Tom Hooper - The King's Speech
Were we right?
Emphatically, no. We said: "We're going all out on Fincher. Mark our words."

BEST ACTRESS
The winner was: Natalie Portman - Black Swan
Were we right?
While we desperately wanted Jennifer Lawrence to win, we knew that it was never going to happen and so said that, "Natalie Portman will probably walk away with it." Right again.

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
The winner was: Christian Bale - The Fighter
Were we right?
We favoured Geoffrey Rush or the brilliant Mark Ruffalo so, no, we weren't.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
The winner was: Melissa Leo - The Fighter
Were we right?
We were kinda bored of predicting by this stage, so we lazily suggested that Helena Bonham Carter might sneak it. We were not right.

So, what have we learnt here? Well, with only two out of six correct, we have learnt that we aren't very good at predicting stuff. We're also just starting to realise that, if you are going to get two-thirds of your predictions wrong, then it's not the wisest idea to write a post highlighting the fact. We shoulda kept schtum really, hey? As if anyone would've remembered what we'd said all those weeks ago.

In the other categories, we're pleased Toy Story 3 won the consolation prize of Best Animated Picture (although it would have been an absolute travesty had it not) and we're also happy that Aaron Sorkin was recognised for The Social Network and that the movie also deservedly picked up the Film Editing award. Inception was criminally overlooked, but at least it got a nod for Visual Effects. Where the heck was 127 Hours though?

Anyhoo, here are the results of all the other categories that we couldn't be arsed to speculate on in the build-up.

Foreign Language Film - In a Better World - Denmark
Adapted Screenplay - Aaron Sorkin - The Social Network
Original Screenplay David Seidler - The King's Speech
Animated Feature Film - Toy Story 3
Art Direction Alice in Wonderland
Cinematography Inception
Sound Mixing Inception
Sound Editing Inception
Original Score The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Original Song We Belong Together from Toy Story 3, Randy Newman.
Costume Design Alice in Wonderland
Documentary Feature Inside Job
Documentary (short subject) Strangers No More
Film Editing The Social Network
Makeup The Wolfman
Animated Short Film The Lost Thing
Live Action Short Film God of Love
Visual Effects Inception

Words by Rob Townsend

The King's Speech

You’ll have heard plenty about The King's Speech, as critics fall over themselves to heap praise on the latest offering from Tom Hooper, and it’s easy to see why, as there is much to admire.

The movie, which tells the story of King George VI’s impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it, hangs on two outstanding central performances that conflict, contrast and bounce off each other perfectly. Geoffrey Rush plays the colonial commoner who attempts to heal the stutter of Colin Firth’s reluctant royal. Rush is fun and uninhibited while Firth is rigid as a wall. It makes for a fantastic dynamic as they forge quite the strangest friendship.
There are fine supporting performances from Helena Bonham Carter and Guy Pearce, while Timothy Spall has great fun being Winston Churchill as England lurches towards war. But this isn’t really a film about war, nor is about royalty. It is about breaking down class divides, it is about perseverance , it is about strength of character. Ultimately it is a film about friendship and, while the movie ends with England at war with Germany, it still leaves you feeling full of hope and warmth. And that is quite the achievement, when you think about it.

With Firth having already picked up a Golden Globe for his performance, he is sure to be one of the favourites when the Oscars come around. If he wins it, it will be richly deserved.

Review by Rob Townsend. Check out the trailer below.

Academy Award Nominations

Ah yes, the ill-advised dresses, the massive egos, the fake sincerity, the hours of boredom before we reach the part of the show that anyone cares about... we love The Oscars at BobbySix.com. So we were obviously excited when this year's nominations landed this week. Pleasingly enough, it's actually a pretty strong field this time round and some of the categories are tough to confidently call.

Here is a list of the big six's nominations along with BobbySix.com's bold predictions as to who will walk away with the gold statues when the ceremony takes place in March. If only Ricky Gervais was hosting...

BEST PICTURE
127 HOURS
BLACK SWAN
INCEPTION
THE FIGHTER
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
THE KING’S SPEECH
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
TOY STORY 3
TRUE GRIT
WINTER’S BONE

Our hearts tell us that Toy Story 3 should win. Our heads tell us that it is hard to look far beyond Inception. If we were betting folk though, we'd have a sneaky few quid on The Social Network.

BEST DIRECTOR
DARREN ARONOFSKY - BLACK SWAN
DAVID FINCHER - THE SOCIAL NETWORK
TOM HOOPER - THE KING’S SPEECH
JOEL AND ETHAN COEN - TRUE GRIT
DAVID O. RUSSELL - THE FIGHTER

We're going all out on Fincher. Mark our words.

BEST ACTOR
JEFF BRIDGES - TRUE GRIT
JAVIER BARDEM - BIUTIFUL
JESSE EISENBERG - THE SOCIAL NETWORK
COLIN FIRTH - THE KING’S SPEECH
JAMES FRANCO - 127 HOURS

Sometimes The Oscars throw up dead certs. Colin Firth will win Best Actor. No doubt.

BEST ACTRESS
ANNETTE BENING - THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
NICOLE KIDMAN - RABBIT HOLE
JENNIFER LAWRENCE - WINTER’S BONE
NATALIE PORTMAN - BLACK SWAN
MICHELLE WILLIAMS - BLUE VALENTINE

It would be totally amazing - and fully deserved - if Jennifer Lawrence won this. However, she is probably too young to get the nod as the Academy will see her as someone with potential that they can reward at a later date. Shame, because her performance was magnificent in Winter's Bone. Therefore, Natalie Portman will probably walk away with it. Which we're happy enough about as well.

BEST 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

Pretty much everything Geoffrey Rush does is close to perfection, so there is a good chance that it will be a Best Actor/Best Supporting Actor double for The King's Speech. However, Mark Ruffalo's performance in The Kids Are Alright does it for us. A good film and a fine turn as a man coming to terms - in his own inimitable way - with the fact that he is father of a couple of teens.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
AMY ADAMS - THE FIGHTER
HELENA BONHAM CARTER - THE KING’S SPEECH
MELISSA LEO - THE FIGHTER
HAILEE STEINFELD - TRUE GRIT
JACKIE WEAVER - ANIMAL KINGDOM

This one is the toughest to call of all, so take your pick. Is it lazy to just suggest that another award is heading to The King's Speech? Maybe, but we're gonna do it anyway.

Predictions by Rob Townsend. Agree? Disagree? Let us know below.

An honest to blog Juno review

It was generally agreed amongst critics that 2007 was a pretty woeful year for movies. Well, if the quality of new release Juno is any benchmark, 2008 is going to be a whole lot better:Following in the indie slipstream of Little Miss Sunshine, Juno is an intelligent comedy telling the story of 16-year-old Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) who gets up the spud following a one-off encounter with her endearingly geeky best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), and her subsequent decision to have the baby adopted.

Obviously the schoolgirl’s plan to give up her sprog to a desperate, childless woman (Jennifer Garner) and her hen-pecked husband (Jason Bateman) is not without its pitfalls and, as the nicely-paced narrative unfolds, the collection of genial, convincing characters unveil their own troubles and insecurities, from the stifled love that Bleeker feels towards Juno, to the Peter Pan complex of Bateman’s character. These complexities are personified perfectly by the protagonist, whose impish wit hides an unravelling aching and yearning. This is essentially a story about courage and dignity in the face of adversity, and it is handled wonderfully by director Jason Reitman and performed immaculately by the oustanding and believable Page and Cera.

Okay, so the dialogue may seem a bit too razor sharp at times, but the fact that every character is consistently super witty to the point of being a stand-up comic is easily forgivable due to the sheer number of laugh-out-loud moments. This film is quotable in a Napoleon Dynamite kind of way, and you will by attempting to pass off the standout quotes as your own for weeks to come.Juno also offers a soundtrack which will have indie kids everywhere wetting themselves, not least the Moldy Peaches moment that will melt even the coldest of hearts. Elsewhere, Belle and Sebastian, Cat Power, Sonic Youth and Mott The Hoople (can you guess which song?) add to the charm.

In a nutshell, it would take someone with the soul of a pocket calculator not to be touched by this lovely, lovely film.

See the trailer here

UPDATE: Looks like I know what I'm talking about beacuse Juno has just been nominated for four Oscars. They are: best film, best director, best original screenplay and best actress for Ellen Page. For a full list of nominees, go here. Now, let's just see if the ceremony goes ahead.