Silver Screen-Shot: #2 – The Wolf of Wall Street

Given the result from Sunday nights Oscars, I think it’s apt that we celebrate Matthew McConaughey beating out Leo, by highlighting a scene from The Wolf of Wall Street where the 1st time winner and 5 time nominee go face to face. The now famous ‘humming scene’ involves an imperious McConaughey playing Leo’s boss, as the rookie broker portrayed by Leo is on the receiving end of a few questionable life lessons. McConaughey’s character left such a mark on the movie that fans of the film were begging the question as to why his cameo was so brief. Of course the abrupt nature of McConaughey’s appearance is down to the book, but still it’s a testament to his performance that such questions were asked.

While a brave few may argue that McConaughey always possessed the skills to propel him to Academy Award success, he didn’t exactly do himself any favours by sharing those skills exclusively with dull, safe, romantic comedies for the best part of ten years. Finding himself somewhat reformed by recent performances in films such as Mud, The Lincoln Lawyer and Killer Joe, there appears to be no stopping the charismatic Texan. With critics running out of superlatives to describe his current TV venture, True Detective, and having been cast at the helm of the next, sure to be, Christopher Nolan blockbuster, Interstellar, 2014 could well be the year of McConaughey.

And The Oscar Goes To….

Screen-Shot’s Oscar prediction’s breezed home in a night that provided very few surprises. Check out the full list of Oscar winners below.

Best Picture
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave – WINNER
The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actor
Christian Bale, American Hustle
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club — WINNER

Best Actress
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine – WINNER
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Best Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club – WINNER

Best Supporting Actress
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave – WINNER
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska

Best Director
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity – WINNER
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Original Screenplay
Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell, American Hustle
Woody Allen, Blue Jasmine
Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack, Dallas Buyers Club
Spike Jonze, Her – WINNER
Bob Nelson, Nebraska

Best Adapted Screenplay
Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight
Billy Ray, Captain Phillips
Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, Philomena
John Ridley, 12 Years a Slave – WINNER
Terence Winter, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Animated Feature
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest & Celestine
Frozen – WINNER
The Wind Rises

Best Original Song
“Happy,” Despicable Me 2; music and lyrics by Pharrell Williams
“Let It Go,” Frozen; music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez — WINNER
“The Moon Song,” Her; music by Karen O., lyrics by Karen O. and Spike Jonze
“Ordinary Love,” Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom; music by Paul Hewson, Dan Evans, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen, a.k.a. U2; lyrics by Paul Hewson, a.k.a. Bono

Best Original Score
John Williams, The Book Thief
Steven Price, Gravity – WINNER
William Butler and Owen Pallett, Her
Alexandre Desplat, Philomena
Thomas Newman, Saving Mr. Banks

Best Production Design
Judy Becker (Production Design); Heather Loeffler (Set Decoration), American Hustle
Andy Nicholson (Production Design); Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard (Set Decoration), Gravity
Catherine Martin (Production Design); Beverley Dunn (Set Decoration), The Great Gatsby – WINNER
K.K. Barrett (Production Design); Gene Serdena (Set Decoration), Her
Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Alice Baker (Set Decoration), 12 Years a Slave

Best Film Editing
Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten, American Hustle
Christopher Rouse, Captain Phillips
John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa, Dallas Buyers Club
Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger, Gravity – WINNER
Joe Walker, 12 Years a Slave

Best Cinematography
Philippe Le Sourd, The Grandmaster
Emmanuel Lubezki, Gravity – WINNER
Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis
Phedon Papamichael, Nebraska
Roger A. Deakins, Prisoners

Best Sound Editing
Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns, All Is Lost
Oliver Tarney, Captain Phillips
Glenn Freemantle, Gravity – WINNER
Brent Burge, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Wylie Stateman, Lone Survivor

Best Sound Mixing
Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro, Captain Phillips
Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro, Gravity – WINNER
Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland, Inside Llewyn Davis
Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow, Lone Survivor

Best Foreign Language Film
The Broken Circle Breakdown, Belgium
The Great Beauty, Italy — WINNER
The Hunt, Denmark
The Missing Picture, Cambodia
Omar, Palestine

Best Documentary — Feature
The Act of Killing
Cutie and the Boxer
Dirty Wars
The Square
20 Feet from Stardom – WINNER

Best Documentary — Short
CaveDigger
Facing Fear
Karama Has No Walls
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life – WINNER
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall

Best Live Action Short
Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything)
Helium – WINNER
Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)
The Voorman Problem

Best Visual Effects
Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould, Gravity – WINNER
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick, Iron Man 3
Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier, The Lone Ranger
Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton, Star Trek Into Darkness

Best Animated Short
Feral
Get a Horse!
Mr. Hublot – WINNER
Possessions
Room on the Broom

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews, Dallas Buyers Club – WINNER
Stephen Prouty, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny, The Lone Ranger

Best Costume Design
Michael Wilkinson, American Hustle
William Chang Suk Ping, The Grandmaster
Catherine Martin, The Great Gatsby – WINNER
Michael O’Connor, The Invisible Woman
Patricia Norris, 12 Years a Slave

Screen-Shot’s Oscar 2014 Predicitons.

The end of award season brings with it the grand daddy of them all, The Oscars. Tonight the Dolby Theatre in LA will be host to an array of Hollywoods finest, as they gather to celebrate the achievement of their peers for the 86th Academy Awards. As ever, the majority of the attention will be on the big prizes up for grabs, while the rest, will be on Jennifer Lawrence. With that, here’s our predictions for some of the main awards on offer tonight.

Best Picture

Winner –  12 Years A Slave

In what could be considered a poor year for The Best Picture category, 12 Years A Slave‘s stellar cast and powerful subject matter make it a clear winner. There were no punches pulled by Director Steve McQueen in this brutally honest portrayal of slavery in the pre civil-War United States. Slow, brooding and occasionally gruesome, 12 Years A Slave can at times be a struggle to watch, but like many great, thought provoking films, you don’t appreciate it till the credits have rolled and you’ve had time to reflect.

Best Director

Winner – Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)

Unfortunately Gravity will be the recipient of at least one top award, and after the film made history by claiming a joint Best Film award at the PGA’s,(shared with 12 Years A Slave) let’s hope it’s just the one! Alfonso Cuarón’s tremendous utilisation of CGI papered over the cracks of a film that offered nothing in terms of story or character. Usually the Academy celebrates realism but such momentum has gathered behind Gravity that it’s difficult to see this award going anywhere else. Visually the film did impress, while the 3D was nothing we haven’t seen before, the setting Cuarón was able to create for his protagonist, with nothing but a green screen, was impressive…. I suppose.

Best Actor

Winner – Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

No one loves aids like the the Oscars, and that’ll be proved again tonight when Matthew McConaughey saunters up those now infamous Dolby Theatre steps to collect the award that, let’s face it, no one would have predicted 5 years ago. What’s more, it’ll be thoroughly deserved, McConaughey has hit a purple patch in his career and it seems he can do no wrong.  Add to that, by losing 40 pounds and making himself, dare I say it, unattractive, McConaughey has ticked all the right boxes in terms of Oscar bait. Unfortunately for Leo, Chiwetel and co, no one can stop this McConaughey train right now.

Best Actress

Winner – Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Cate Blanchett has been poised to take home this award since the day Blue Jasmine was released, and she’s still holding on nicely after wins from SAG, the Critics Choice and the Golden Globes. Had Amy Adams not been nominated, it would basically be a 99.9% done deal.

Best Supporting Actress

Winner – Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years A Slave)

Lupita v. Jennifer: This is the definite showdown in this race, as the two have basically split all the precursors. Lupita probably has the edge though. Will voters really want to give 23 year old Lawrence two Oscars in two years? It’s definitely possible, but Lawrence doesn’t even seem to want it, she didn’t show up to accept her BAFTA, and hasn’t been campaigning much. Nyong’o, on the other hand, has been the breakout star of this awards season, nailing every speech and interview there was. Lupita to win, but just.

Best Supporting Actor

Winner – Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

The lead singer of 30 Second To Mars returns to the big screen with a performance proving what an all-round talent the man possesses. Almost unrecognisable as cross dressing Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club, Leto has won almost every precursor leading up to the Oscars, which makes him one of the surest bets of the night.

Disagree? Good! Let us know in the comments below.

A first look at Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For’.

Nine Years have passed since the original, so let’s hope that time was spent preparing a film capable of living up to the brilliance of its predecessor. With Miller and Rodriguez back at the helm, we’re sure it can.

Jessica Alba is back as ‘Lil Nancy Callaghan’. We’re sure many of you will be giving this move a resounding thumbs up.

Mickey Rourke is back as Marv, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a “fresh” new role in the series.

A Year In TV Bad-Asses

5. Ron Swanson (Parks and Recreation)

Director of the Parks and Recreation department in the city of Pawne.

What makes him a bad ass? Look at that mustache, you’re God damn right it belongs on this list. Ron Swanson is a mans man, more so than anyone on television, or anyone anywhere. A man who’s ideal burger, is a half pound of meat, with two larger pieces of meat acting as buns, a man who’s feelings on other people is best summed up by this quote, “When people get a little too chummy with me, I like to call them by the wrong name, to let them know I don’t really care about them.” Not only this, but Ron gets the ladies, and with that mustache, who could blame them.

4. Don Draper (Mad Men)

Don Draper is the enigmatic founding partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. 

What makes him a bad ass? So often in television and film, we see these womanizers and laugh at how ridiculously fake they’re portrayed, leaving us to wonder how we’re actually supposed to believe that they’re getting all these women.  That isn’t the case with Don Draper.  Don Draper is the man women want, and other men want to be. In fact, you know if he was your Boss, he’d steal your wife and bang your sister. Worst of all, you wouldn’t even care because he’s so damn smooth!  The man spends his day puffing Lucky Strikes and drinking Martinis, and if all that isn’t bad-assery of the highest order, then I don’t know what is.

3. Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock)

Baker Streets resident Private Eye.

What makes him a bad ass? It seems narcissism is one of the key elements of being a Bad-Ass, and it’s certainly a trait Bennidict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock has in spades.  The crime sleuth is cold, calculating and absolutely brilliant. Bored by 99% of the people he encounters each day, Sherlock can’t help but insult them with his his sheer disdain for the simplicity of their thinking. A memorable encounter with Irene Adler is perhaps the peak of Sherlock’s lady killing career, but lady killing isn’t this big dogs game. Buoyed by murderers, kidnappers and psychopaths, what gets this Bad-Ass off is the challenge he faces each and every time he goes head to head with a criminal mastermind. A showman at heart, Sherlock tackles each case with a level of pageantry that screams “me, me, everyone look at me” and who doesn’t love such arrogance!

2. Tryion Lannister (Game of Thrones)

Everybody’s favourite leading half-man, with a wit sharper than all the swords in Westeros.

What makes him a bad ass?  With a knife to his throat and posed with the question of how he’d like to die, Tryion responded, “In my own bed, at the age of 80, with a belly full of wine and a girl’s mouth around my cock.” Despite coming in at just shy of the 4 foot mark, Tyrion’s on screen presence is immense. He began life on screen as a misogynistic drunk who’s helped himself to more whore’s than you’ve had hot dinners, and we loved it. He was the comic relief that provided us with a moment of respite amongst the rapings and be-headings. However, as the show progressed, Tryion has been thrust into situations that allowed his true character to shine and quickly he began to win over the hearts of viewers with the bravery and honor even he wasn’t sure he possessed.

1. Walter White (Breaking Bad)

Chemistry Teacher turned Meth Dealer, obviously.

What makes him a bad ass? Who else could it have been? Seriously. This list could have been compromised of TV Bad-Asses from the last 50 years and it would probably still be Walter White sitting pretty on top of the pile. Rarely have you seen a character transform so dramatically over the course of a TV Show, but what’s so remarkable about what Breaking Bad does, is it makes you believe it could happen.  The transformation from Teacher to “Danger” happens slowly and with reason. Diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer Walt is driven by the fear of leaving his family in financial disarray. What results is an abundance of viewer confliction, we empathise with his situation and commend the heart he shows in what he’s trying to achieve, but as time progresses his motives become questionable and his character, even more so . The ultimate anti-hero, Walter White uses his Chemistry knowledge in a Macgyver-esque fashion that gives us some of the most astonishing TV moments of recent years. Bryan Cranston’s brilliant portrayal of a man constantly teetering on the edge of sanity is what really brings it all home. With all that, there’s only one thing left to do, and that’s to Say. His. Name…. Heisenberg.

Do you agree? Probably not, so who’s your top TV Bad-Ass? Let us know in the comments.

Silver Screen-Shot: #1 – Charlie Wilson’s War

Silver Screen-Shot: A feature that brings you some of the most impressive big screen movie moments. – In light of recent events, we begin this feature with a powerhouse performance from the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Truly one of the finest actors to grace our screens throughout the last 20 years and in Charlie Wilson’s War we are treated to just one of the multitude of imposing performances he gifted us in his time. Even out of context this scene is an absolute showcase of his talent.