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News

In India, Munroe-Blum secures a new research partnership

by Nick Frid on

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McGill is hoping that a new agreement with TERI University in India will put the university at the forefront of climate research. The research memorandum focusses on three different aspects of environmental research: urban transportation, biofuels, and renewable energy.

Principal Heather Munroe-Blum and Denis Thérien, McGill’s vice-principal (research and international relations), secured a memorandum of agreement with New Delhi-based TERI University, as well as similar agreements with three other Indian universities, while accompanying Quebec Premier Jean Charest on a trade mission to the country.

The agreement was also signed in order to increase the ease of communication between universities. TERI University is already renowned for its climate research, and this agreement will help to enable better student and faculty exchanges.

“One of the goals we have been constructing is to improve student mobility, and not only students, but faculty as well, and both ways,” said Thérien. “We would like Indian students to come to McGill, and we want McGill students to go to TERI … It’s a two- way relationship.”

Dr. P.P. Bhojvaid, vice-chancellor of TERI University, who co-ordinated the agreement from TERI’s side, has lived in Montreal and knows the McGill community well. The universities had been in academic contact prior to the agreement and the research memorandum is intended to serve as a formal recognition of this partnership.

“There are already relationships between colleagues at McGill and colleagues from TERI University. You have to be aware there are two things, the institute and the academy, and we are already working with both on all three legs. The agreement that we signed was to formalize something already in place,” said Thérien.

The prospect of going to study in India is certainly exciting for some students.

“I would love the experience of studying in India because it would bring a different perspective,” said Max Luke, U1 biodiversity and conservation. “As an environment student, too, it would be great to go there because I think McGill has made a really good choice with this school and this research collaboration.”

Professor Donald Smith of the department of plant science is one of the researchers involved with the biofuel portion of the project. He explained the growing importance of this type of research given current global economic conditions.

“Global energy demand is rising steeply in both developed and developing nations and, at the same time, we are about at the point of maximum rate of extraction of crude oil, thus demand is beginning to outstrip supply,” he said.

One of the keys to Smith’s work is to lower the input and maximize output of the energy involving biofuels – achieving this is critical to future success.

“Brazil currently produces 50 per cent of its fluid fuels on only one per cent of its agricultural land,” Smith said. “Through developing the resource, [Brazil] has positioned itself extremely well for a world where fossil fuels are relied on less and less.”

Right now, both schools are looking on their respective sides for funding to help the program. In terms of the research, Thérien said, “the first concrete next step is the workshop on the theme of biofuels between colleagues of McGill and colleagues of TERI which should take place in the next few weeks.”

The two schools are also quickly working to benefit the students and exchange professors.

“We are looking at how possible it is in a short time frame to exchange courses and programs; to have some professors go there and teach our models,” Thérien said. “For example, something we discussed last week was sending our professors over there to teach a very intensive three week course.”

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

Fear and loathing just outside of Las Vegas

by Kyle Carpenter on

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It’s been said that there’s only two different types of stories: either the protagonist leaves his or her old life, or someone new enters it. Oversimplified? Yes, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any truth to it. In the case of Saint John of Las Vegas, it’s both. Steve Buscemi stars as John Alegheri, a pathetic yet quirky recovering gambling addict-turned-insurance fraud investigator alongside his new partner, an enigmatic hard-ass named Virgil (Romany Malco, from Weeds and The 40 Year Old Virgin). Together they investigate the case of a stripper (an almost unrecognizable Emmanuelle Chriqui of Entourage) who ends up in a wheelchair after getting into a car accident in the desert, which Virgil believes is a sham.

In the opening scene, we see John frantically rambling to a girl working at a convenience store about buying lottery tickets with a large envelope full of money, with half of his face covered in red bruises. The movie then jumps back in time to John’s self-narrated everyday life at the office. The film cuts between the scene at the convenience store and the linear plotline throughout the movie, making the viewer ask a number of questions: where did he get the money? And more importantly, what happened to his face? It’s similar to the vague opening scene of The Hangover, where a beat-up Bradley Cooper explains that his friend’s wedding isn’t going to happen.

The movie takes the form of a road novel, with John and Virgil travelling around the Nevada desert trying to find ways to prove the car accident was fake. In true road novel fashion, there is a lot of emphasis on strange, far-out characters that they meet along the way. Examples include a community of naked men with guns and a stuntman who’s malfunctioning suit makes him periodically catch on fire. The latter’s conversation with John and his attempts to smoke a cigarette make for one of the best and most creative scenes in the film.

Sarah Silverman, whose performance is different from her venomous-tongued stand-up routines, plays the love interest: a receptionist obsessed with smiley faces, though that’s only the beginning of her mental problems. She’s good at playing the sexy-yet-creepy role – think a more subtle version of Isla Fisher in Wedding Crashers. Although Buscemi’s performance is commendable as always, Malco overshadows his performance; his combination of straight-man and sociopath accounts for most of the film’s humour.

Saint John of Las Vegas is darkly funny, but more often than not, it’s not laugh-out-loud. The cast is strong and simple, with Buscemi, Malco, and Silverman accounting for the majority of screen time. Unfortunately, Chirqui is underused, as her role on Entourage has shown that she’s more than just a pretty face. Throughout the film, the viewer is kept in the dark almost as much as John, which gives the illusion that we’re being lead along by Virgil as well. With the right attitude and a bit of patience on the part of the audience, this technique pays off, as the viewer is forced to react to the unexpected twists as if they’re happening to them as well.

Saint John of Las Vegas plays at AMC Forum 22.

Opinion

COMMENTARY: Opt-out misinformation

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Re: “Opting out of QPIRG” by Brendan Steven (26.01.10)

In his article “Opting out of QPIRG,” Brendan Steven claims that “controversial groups” should go directly to students for their funding, instead of receiving it through the McGill chapter of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group. However, a fee levy, like a referendum, is a form of direct democracy. McGill students vote to renew QPIRG’s funding, and thus the support of its numerous working groups, through a referendum every five years. Furthermore, students can choose to opt-out of the fee. QPIRG has passed three referenda votes in the last three years, re-affirming support for its work on campus.

Students support a wide variety of organizations that they cannot opt-out of, regardless of whether they take advantage of the services or agree with their mandates. We believe that QPIRG McGill’s working groups contribute to campus life in a variety of valuable ways: they strengthen ties between the McGill campus and the wider Montreal community, foster debate about society and political life, and encourage a broader understanding of the role of education.

Tadamon’s work in supporting the growing international movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions to end Israeli Apartheid comes in response to a call issued by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations in 2005. While Steven attempts to dismiss the characterization of Israel as an apartheid state as “a parallel [with South African Apartheid] that is inappropriate at best,” we would like to point out the growing global consensus that Israel is indeed an Apartheid state. From South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, to South African law professor and UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur John Dugard, increasing numbers of people recognize Israel’s policies of separate roads in the West Bank for Jewish and Palestinian citizens, colour-coded identification cards based on ethno-racial designations, checkpoints throughout the West Bank, the brutal blockade of Gaza, and the discrimination in jobs, housing, property ownership, and other aspects of life faced by Palestinians within Israel as elements of a complex system of Apartheid. As Archbishop Tutu stated in 2002, “I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about.”

The Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble is not an anarchist drumming group. We are an open-membership marching band that supports community struggles by playing music in the streets, at rallies, demos, community dinners, and radical artistic events. As Steven claims, we do organize according to anarchist principles. Anarchism is a widely misunderstood and incorrectly used word. For instance, we do not advocate random, wanton destruction or violence. We do, however, make decisions on a consensus basis, operate in a non-hierarchical fashion, and support the struggles of real people in diverse communities. Our decision to organize according to anarchist principles is based on the idea that humans are capable of building a fully democratic society that is accountable to all of its members, not just an elite few or a tyrannical majority. Through our music, we work to resist oppression and reclaim our communities – to bring music, joy, and spontaneity to public spaces. This may seem “fringe” to some, but to others it is more and more necessary in a climate of increasing conservatism.

QPIRG working groups operate on the basis of solid analysis and real world struggles. The allegation that these groups are “misguided” is founded on an assumption that the current political system addresses the concerns of all its citizens. The movements for the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, civil rights, and LGBT rights all began as controversial, “fringe” struggles for human rights. Disrupting the status quo and calling into question injustice is an important part of university life, and we are proud participants in this struggle.

Student Life

Internet protocol, proxy servers, and possible prison time

by Iain Macdonald on

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When the Internet was invented in the mid-nineties, it presented numerous new challenges to the engineering and computer science world. Never before had so many people been connected through so many links simultaneously. Today, approximately 100 terabytes of information are transferred on the Internet every second, and transmission can be complicated to understand.

The Internet is a massive inter-connection of different computers. Each website is stored on a server (or multiple servers) somewhere in the world, which in turn connects to an Internet service provider – servers are never linked directly to personal computers. This means that when you type “www.facebook.com” into a browser, there’s no direct link between your computer and the facebook.com server. Instead, messages are sent through dozens of other computers before arriving at the appropriate machine.

When you are using the Internet, your computer is not transmitting all of the information at once. Instead, it sends out packets, which are small chunks of data with a destination, source, encryption scheme, and the actual data. These packets are sent from your ISP out into the Internet to numerous servers. Every time a server receives a packet, it looks at the address on it and either stops and reads it if the packet is for that machine, or sends it on through its connection. This continues until the message reaches the desired location.

To avoid duplicate names, each computer is assigned an Internet protocol address. This IP address is unique to the machine, and serves as the identifier for all communications between the computer and the Internet.

IP addresses are generally assigned based on geographic location, which is why many services are able to identify the location of your computer when you connect to their server. Some servers selectively block people from certain geographic regions, or ban users based on their IP address because they don’t want these people to use their service. A classic example is when you want to view a television show or movie on a foreign website, such as NBC, CBS, or Hulu. These companies broadcast their shows and media to viewers for free because of the revenue they make from advertisements. Unfortunately, the rate paid for advertising is based on viewership only in the network’s home country, so they block foreign IP addresses, which don’t acquire revenue. This gets complicated when you want to watch the most recent episode of House, but don’t want to pay three dollars on iTunes (or watch on a pirate website, where the quality is almost sure to be terrible).

Proxy servers act as a middleman to accessing these services: proxy servers are machines in a different part of the world that access websites on your behalf, and send the results back to you. When you connect to a proxy server (a Google search will reveal a list of such services), the proxy server forwards your message to the destination website, with a different return address. This fools the website into thinking it’s talking to someone else. The proxy server then sends the results back to you, without the discriminatory website knowing. Keep in mind that this process may violate the terms of agreement of certain sites, so approach with caution.

Student Life

Choosing your future apartment

by Jaime Shedletsky on

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Good Signs

Safety: Windows and doors can be securely closed and locked. Aside from the landlord, only you and your roommates have copies of the key. There is a working smoke alarm.

Tenants: Other students are living in the building.

Superintendant/Landlord: One or both live either in or nearby the apartment building, and are available in case of emergencies.

Laundry: Laundry facilities are inside your unit, or easily accessible at minimal cost.

Signing the lease: It is normal for the landlord to request references for a credit check or a co-signer (e.g. a parent) for students without a steady income.

Rent: Expect your monthly rent to increase every 12 months.

Subletting: Your landlord should enable subleasing. If you are going to be away for the summer, or plan to go on exchange, it’s a good idea to sublet your place.

Maintenance: The landlord plans to repair any problems you have found with the place, and assures you that they will maintain the dwelling throughout your lease. Be forewarned that any repairs needed as a result of the tenant are not under the responsibility of the landlord.

Bad Signs

Safety: The door and windows do not lock properly. Your unit backs onto a dark alley, but the windows are not protected by bars. There is no smoke alarm, or it has not been tested to assure it works.

Tenants: Your landlord is your downstairs neighbour and the baby upstairs screams.

Superintendant/Landlord: Neither lives in or close to the apartment. Your landlord has not provided you with any emergency contact information. You share no common languages, making communication an effort in interpretive sign language and gestures.

Laundry: Facilities are available, but there are not enough machines to meet the demand and they are constantly out of order.

Signing the lease: The landlord asks for a deposit outside of the first month’s rent, a key deposit, postdated cheques, or credit card, passport, bank account, and SIN numbers.

Rent: The landlord raises the rent mid-lease or terminates the lease before it expires (i.e. if she kicks you out, that is a problem).

Subletting: The landlord forbids a tenant to sublease without a valid reason.

Maintenance: Your landlord has made no indication that he/she intends to fix any identified problems with the apartment. Note: holes in walls, funky-smelling gas stove, and frost in the freezer are not good signs.

Sports

Bouchard leads the way as Redmen demolish helpless Citadins

by Kailan Leung on

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On a night dedicated to the departing seniors of the Redmen basketball team, McGill’s talented youth movement almost stole the show. Freshman point guard Olivier Bouchard put up 16 points and five assists to lead the Redmen to an impressive 93-63 drubbing of first-placed UQAM on Saturday night at Love Competition Hall.

Bouchard, who played his CEGEP ball at College Montmorency, looked to push the tempo of the game from the start. The diminutive guard wreaked havoc on the Citadins’ perimeter defence with his quickness, consistently getting to the rim and finding open shooters on the wings. The Redmen led 19-18 at the end of the first quarter, and came out with even greater intensity to start the second period.

An early free-throw by fourth-year forward Jesse Woods and a jumper by fellow senior Matthew Thornhill marked the beginning of the end for the visiting side. The Redmen caught fire from the outside midway through the period, but also continued to pound the ball into the post and get to the charity stripe. McGill’s offensive scheme – coupled with stifling zone defence and a commitment to rebounding – proved a deadly combination for the Citadins, who struggled to manufacture points all game long.

The offensive onslaught continued in the second half, with McGill’s lead ballooning to a whopping 43 points with seven minutes remaining in the final stanza. A series of UQAM threes near the end of the game made the final score slightly more respectable, but the margin of victory for McGill was still the largest in team history over the Citadins.

Thornhill finished with 15 points to go along with four steals, while forward Michael White chipped in with 13 points and seven rebounds. While McGill’s veterans provided their usual steady play, it was the Redmen rookies who shined the brightest. Winn Clark flashed the court-savvy, hustle, and shooting touch that made him a highly sought-after recruit by a number of NCAA Division 1 programs. Clark finished the game with 11 points and four assists, while 6-foot-6 swingman Nic Langley showcased his athleticism and touch on both ends of the floor en route to nine points.

With the departures of Thornhill, Woods, and senior guard Pawel Herra, the Redmen will be a decidedly young squad next season. However, Head Coach Craig Norman’s newest recruits have proven themselves to be a competitive and capable group, and the future is bright for the program. For now, though, the Redmen turn their sights towards the final three games of the regular season, hitting the road on February 12 to take on the Laval Rouge et Or. QSSF playoff action begins on March 4.

Sports

Martlets hold on for wild win over hot-shooting Citadins

by Kailan Leung on

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What do Shakespeare and the McGill women’s basketball team have in common? In most cases, not very much. But at this point in the year, “all’s well that ends well” is becoming an increasingly useful descriptor for the way the Martlets’ season has progressed. After a mediocre start to conference play, the Martlets have picked up their play as of late, and continued their recent surge with a wild 70-69 victory over the visiting UQAM Citadins at Love Competition Hall on Saturday night.

McGill came out of the gates on fire, connecting on a bevy of outside shots to take a 16-10 lead after the first quarter. The hot shooting continued for the Martlets, who pushed their lead to 15 midway through the second period. However, things began to unravel for the home squad after intermission, as McGill failed to sustain their offensive momentum, and UQAM began to connect from downtown. The Citadins took a five-point lead with less than five minutes left in regulation, but the Martlets refused to fold.

“[Head Coach Ryan Thorne] wanted us to just grind it out,” said fifth-year guard Stephanie Bergeron, who was honoured along with fellow seniors Nathifa Weekes and Caroline Hebert following the game. “They were hitting some big threes. That’s basically it. It comes down [to] a battle of the boards, and who wants it more. [Coach] had confidence in us the whole time. We felt that, and we let our momentum carry us through.”

In the dying moments of the game, however, momentum appeared to be heavily on the visitors’ side. After a pair of free-throws by first-year forward Helene Bibeau put McGill up by one, UQAM’s Michelle Auger-Bellemare sunk a jumper from the wing with 36 seconds to go. After turning the ball over underneath their own basket, the Martlets were forced to foul, but a Citadin player stepped out of bounds on the ensuing possession to give the ball right back to the home squad, setting up the dramatic finish. With time running down, the Martlets gave the ball to Bibeau at the top of the key, who drove left before pulling up from 10 feet and connecting on a contested jumper. The shot capped a highly entertaining game, and gave McGill a much-needed lift in the standings.

“It’s definitely a big win. It was a big boost,” said Bergeron. “We jumped into second place with that win so we’re really happy. Helene Bibeau came up big for us […] and down the stretch we were disciplined with our defence and our rebounding. Everybody came together when we needed them the most.”

For the Martlets, every contest now has the feel of a must-win game, as the team scrambles for a higher seed before playoffs begin in March. Bergeron recognized that the team still has a lot to improve upon if they wish to be contenders in a month’s time.

“We have a hard time closing out games – we’ll lose by a couple of points or we’ll go into overtime and lose, and that gets you down,” she said. “When you win a game like this, it’s really a confidence booster. [But] we’ve got to take care of the basketball, and be more disciplined on offence. Our key is Anneth [Him-Lazarenko]. We need to really get her the ball and she just has to do her thing, find the shooters when she’s double-teamed, and we just have to knock down shots.”

Him-Lazarenko – whose stellar freshman campaign was cut short last year after a devastating ACL injury – has returned this season to carry the offensive load for the Martlets. She doubled up with 17 points and 12 rebounds on Saturday, while Weekes and freshman Marie-Eve Martin chipped in with 13 and 14 points, respectively. Playing in her last home game, Weekes was pleased with her squad’s resilience, and expressed satisfaction as to the future of the program.

“I think [Martlet basketball] is headed in the right direction,” she said. “We’ve got a bunch of good recruits and rookies, and the future is bright.”

McGill takes some time off before hitting the road for a date with the first-placed Laval Rouge et Or on February 12. The Martlets play their final game of the regular season against the Citadins at UQAM on February 27.

Sports

Carabins carve up Redmen in three sets to spoil seniors’ night

by Kailan Leung on

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A straight-set loss to the visiting Montreal Carabins wasn’t the result the McGill men’s volleyball team had hoped for, but for the team and the fans, Friday night’s match was about far more than a small shift in the standings. It was about sacrifice, determination, growth, and an increasingly optimistic future.

Graduating seniors Tom Fabian, Ed O’Dwyer, and Matthew Mosseler were honoured before the start of the match for their sizeable contributions to a program that wallowed in mediocrity for many years, but has become increasingly competitive and successful in recent seasons. Redmen Head Coach Simon Berleur – in his fifth season with the team – was quick to recognize the collective impact his graduating players have had on McGill’s men’s volleyball program.

“This is a group who came in four years ago, when we did not have the momentum that we have now, [and] really helped bring this team to another level,” he said. “Before, we had a tough time [just] to play against the [other team’s] bench, and now we compete with the starters. The next step for us is to bring in new recruits, and start a new generation.”

On Friday, Montreal proved too big and too strong for the undersized Redmen to handle, consistently breaking through McGill’s block and forcing the home squad to send back freeball after freeball. Freshman middle Pierre-Yves Brennan and junior power-hitter Mark Hodge led the team with 11 points apiece, but perhaps more telling than any of the individual performances in the match was the passion and camaraderie exhibited by the Redmen on the court.

“Last time we played [Montreal], we beat them, but I guess it just wasn’t our night,” said Mosseler. “We started off with a lot of emotion, and that sort of decreased near the end. We need to work on maintaining that emotion throughout the whole game. [But] throughout the season we definitely improved – you could see the improvement from last year. This year was one of [the few] times we’ve ever beaten Montreal, a definite improvement for the program.”

While McGill’s record in conference play has been far from stellar this year, the team has been able to compete consistently with many of the better teams in the country. The Redmen beat the teams they were expected to beat, and were even able to pull a few upsets, most notably a straight-set victory last weekend on the road against the Carabins. O’Dwyer, an all-conference libero who has provided invaluable leadership this season, commented on the significance of the team’s steady improvement from year to year.

“Tonight wasn’t about the three guys who are graduating – it was about the future of the team, and we’ve come a long ways from where we used to be,” he said. “We used to never be competitive against very many teams, and now we’re pushing some of the best teams in the country. That’s where I want to see the program. I hope that if I come back in four years, the program will be even further along than it is now.”

It’s a safe bet to assume that O’Dwyer’s wish will be granted. All signs are certainly pointing towards a highly successful program in the near future.

“We have to make sure we recruit three guys of the same quality,” said Berleur. “That’s the goal for us right now, to have the same competitive team or even better on the court, and potentially have a better [final] objective for the future.”

Filling the shoes left empty by Fabian, Mossler, and O’Dwyer will be a difficult task for McGill’s coaching staff, but as the team has improved, so has the quality of recruiting. McGill boasts a plethora of gifted young players at all positions, and pieces necessary to make the Redmen contenders are continuing to fall into place.

“With the guys Simon is recruiting and with Simon as our coach, if we get the right support from the athletics department the sky’s the limit for us,” said O’Dwyer. “There’s no reason we can’t be competitive in our league and try to get to Nationals. It’s all about the will to win; we’ve got the right pieces in place, and hopefully the future will be bright for us.”

Behind the Bench, Sports

THIRD MAN IN: Wild ‘n Out

by Adam Sadinsky on

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Things are not going well in Minnesota. Three summers ago, Minnesotans watched as their once-beloved Kevin Garnett celebrated his first NBA title as a member of the Boston Celtics. Two weeks ago, they watched in horror as Brett Favre threw an interception late in the fourth to halt the Vikings’ march to their first Super Bowl since 1976. In the NHL, the Minnesota Wild are the epitome of mediocrity, currently wallowing in 11th place in the competitive Western Conference.

However, the Timberwolves lost Garnett thanks to poor management, and the Vikings lost out on a trip to Miami because of a quarterback known for throwing picks. But much of the Wild’s struggles have been totally out of their control, which is why they take the biggest slice of my sympathy. Why do I feel this way? It all comes down to the unfair system the NHL uses to rank its teams in the standings.

Beginning in the 1999-2000 season, the NHL decided to start giving points to teams who lost in overtime. The league justified this move by claiming that teams who held their opponents to a tie at the end of regulation deserved some compensation. So instead of two points being available in every game (two for a win, one each for a tie), there became three available in games that went to an extra frame (two for the win, one for the loss). The system ultimately rewards teams for losing games, and allows clubs with a knack for losing in OT to leapfrog teams with the same amount of wins in the standings.

A week ago, the Wild had 58 points and were looking up at the Detroit Red Wings, who with 64 points held the conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. 11 years ago, one might have assumed that the Wings had won three more games than the Wild. But because of the current ranking system, this is not so. As of press time, Minnesota has actually won two more games than Detroit, but the Red Wings have six more overtime losses than the Wild.

Instead of contemplating who should be sent packing at the trade deadline or how the Twins’ new baseball stadium is going to look, Wild fans should be experiencing the thrill of the playoff hunt. Every morning when they look at the sports page, Minnesotans find three teams ahead of theirs, all of whom have fewer wins.

If hockey were truly about winning games, Minnesota would be challenging for the playoffs. Strangely, though, the NHL wants to reward teams for getting close to winning. In 2005-2006, the Edmonton Oilers won one less game than the Vancouver Canucks, but lost five more times in overtime. That was the difference between making the playoffs and missing out. The Oilers made it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals as the eighth seed, and came within one game of winning it all. Had the NHL not rewarded Edmonton for coming close to winning games, a different Western team would have played in the finals, and the record book might be very different than it is today.

Of course, overtime and shootouts are exciting, and the NHL knows this. But with five minutes left in a tied game, there is no real incentive anymore for a team to go all-out to win. Playing aggressively could very well lead to an odd-man rush the other way, and cost a team the extra point it would have earned by taking the game to overtime. The extra overtime point forces teams to play for overtime and gives fans an exciting product, but only in exchange for a truly competitive game. This fan, for one, would rather see teams play to win, not to tie. The NHL needs to realize that close is only good in horseshoes, and that justice needs to be served in the standings. The Wild should be in the playoff race, not the draft lottery.

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

Oscars 2010: The shoo-ins, the underdogs, and the buzz-worthy

by Kyle Carpenter & Laura Tindal on

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You’ve got 26 days until the Academy Awards, so here’s the buzz and predictions you need to know so you can decide which films to catch up on in the weeks leading up to the Oscars.

BEST PICTURE

This year the Academy has selected 10 motion pictures as candidates for Best Picture, instead of the usual five. The move was made to allow for more diversity in the biggest Oscar category, making more room for small, independent films to be considered alongside the blockbusters. This year’s list of nominees definitely includes a wide range of films, from the accessible, heart-warming, Sandra Bullock vehicle The Blind Side, to the low-budget, mildly-pedophilic British film An Education.

Avatar is in the lead, and is expected to pull a Titantic and not only break box-office records but also pull in a myriad of Oscar statues. But other big names are in the running for this category, including alien Apartheid film District 9 and Tarantino’s Nazi slaughter-fest, Inglourious Basterds. Despite the big names, the movies Avatar has to be wary of are small productions: the tense tale of an American bomb squad unit in Iraq in The Hurt Locker, the depressing plight of an overweight, pregnant, illiterate black teenager in Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, and the coming-of-age film An Education all deserve Best Picture this year. Avatar may have had the effects, excitement, and enjoyment factor, but the writing wasn’t enough to get it into the Best Screenplay category (The Blind Side was the only other Best Picture not nominated for Best Screenplay), and An Education looks like it might just follow in Crash‘s footsteps and unexpectedly take this year’s prize.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

This year, a trio of seasoned veterans head up the best actor category: George Clooney (Up in the Air), Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), and Morgan Freeman (Invictus) are nominated alongside Colin Firth (A Single Man) and the relatively unknown Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker). While there’s been a lot of talk about Firth’s performance in his Mad Men-era film (not to be confused with the Coen brothers black comedy A Serious Man, up for Best Picture) – in which he plays a gay British professor struggling to overcome the death of his partner – he won’t be able to stand against Bridges and Clooney. Bridges’ performance as a fading country music star is headed for the win.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

This should be a no-brainer. There is only one man whose performance overshadowed his entire (highly anticipated) movie. Christoph Waltz, a.k.a Hans Landa, “The Jew Hunter” from Tarantino’s spell-check-worthy hit Inglourious Basterds knows how to the steal the show. From the first scene, in which he both intimidates and entrances the audience – not to mention seamlessly switches between speaking French, German, and English – while drinking a glass of milk, Waltz commands every shot, even when sitting across the table from Brad Pitt. He’s already won a mini-Oscar (Golden Globe), and a mini Golden Globe (Screen Actor’s Award), so an Oscar is the next logical step.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Best Actress always seems like it might go in any direction. Meryl Streep may be the best actress of our time, and with 16 Oscar nominations but only two wins, the Academy may decide her dead-on Julia Child is deserving of a reward. Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe impressed in Precious, while Helen Mirren has been praised for her role as Leo Tolstoy’s wife in The Last Station. Somehow, Sandra Bullock made it into the running for her Southern accent and blonde hair in The Blind Side, in which she broadens her outlook on life by taking in a teen from a broken home and turning him into a football star. Another newcomer, An Education‘s Carey Mulligan, is also up for the prize, but veteran Streep seems likeliest to win this year.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

The two jet-setting actresses (Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick) from George Clooney’s Up In The Air are pitted against each other as nominees, alongside “sad turtle” Maggie Gyllenhaal for her role alongside Jeff Bridges in the country-music romance Crazy Heart. But the spotlight is on last year’s winner Penelope Cruz for her role as Daniel Day-Lewis’ busty, passionate mistress in the musical Nine, as well as on TV actress and talk-show host Mo’Nique for her role as the cruel, abusive mother in Precious. Mo’Nique’s performance was both powerful and unexpected, and is the one that will most likely bring home the Oscar this year.

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

It was a good year for animated films, with Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Up all making it into the running for Animated Fe ature Film. Disney’s racially-conscious, back-to-2D The Princess and the Frog is up, as is The Secret of Kells, an Irish indie cartoon about a boy who grows up with monks and discovers his talent for illustration. All of the nominees this year are worthwhile, but considering Up is nominated for a Best Picture Oscar that it’s not going to win, there’s a good chance Pixar will be taking home another Best Animated award.

DIRECTING

Canadian content is taking over in this category, with Ontarian James Cameron (Avatar) and Montrealer Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) both nominated this year. Yet what people are really excited about is Cameron running against his ex-wife, director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), for the award. Considering Cameron is on his fifth wife, the excitement should be directed not towards Bigelow’s marital history, but to the fact that if she wins, Bigelow would be the first woman to win this award. The Hurt Locker definitely deserves the prize, and it’s worth your time – one view is enough to see why Bigelow will be making history in March.

ART DIRECTION/CINEMATOGRAPHY/FILM EDITING/VISUAL EFFECTS

Avatar has got these awards in the bag. No matter what you think about James Cameron, the writing, or colonialism, you have to admit Avatar created an experience never before seen. The effects, art direction, and filming are so beautifully done that you almost forget it’s all CGI. Add in the 3D, and you’ve got the future of filmmaking. The other nominees don’t stand a chance.

ORIGINAL SONG

There’s no nice way to say it, but lame songs that are largely un-enjoyable outside of their films almost always win in the Best Original Song category. Case in point: two Randy Newman songs from The Princess and the Frog are nominated. And one of them will probably win. Also nominated is “Loin de Paname,” which won’t win because it’s not in English and it’s from a movie that nobody has seen (Paris 36). “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart is also competing, and despite being a great song that’s preferable to a Disney win, it would be an out-of-character choice for the Academy. Acoustic songs tend to be drowned out by big, overproduced show tunes at the Oscars – just ask Elliott Smith in 1998 or Bruce Springsteen in 1995. “Take It All” from Nine – the movie that had Oscars written all over it (until it came out) – could pull off a win, as judges seem to like big, jazzy throwbacks, such as in Nine’s older sibling, Chicago.

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