Magic Tournament

I accompanied my friend to a local Magic the Gathering tournament this evening and it was tremendous fun! It was interesting meeting new players and seeing how they played and what kind of decks they used.

I was rather proud with the outcomes of my matches:
First – Lost 2-0
Second – Drew 1-1
Third – Lost 2-1
Fourth – Won 2-0

I won four matches tonight and, to be honest, that’s four more than I thought I would. The second game was only a draw because we took way too long with the first two matches, and the third game was quite close the entire time.

My friend did a lot better, and ended up coming second over all. He too was surprised at this.

I think we may have to go back again and do even better next time!

Deserving

Oscar season is well under way, especially with the Golden Globes ceremony done and dusted, it’s almost full speed ahead until the awards are given out to those deemed most deserving.

…

Yes, it’s another Oscar post.

I don’t really want to focus on the nominees this year, I want to focus on the future nominees of years to come. There are a lot of people who have shown in their work that they deserve an Oscar, that they are good enough to earn the highest award in the film industry, and I just want to put forward a few names for consideration.

Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain

I pair these two together with good reason – they could both have an Oscar in a little over a month’s time, and of the nominees this year, they are among the most deserving. Hathaway has been my favourite actress for quite some time now – the moment she sang with Hugh Jackman at the Oscars was the moment her talent was cemented in my mind – and she just seemed to get better and better with each performance. If Les Miserables hadn’t come out this year, I wouldn’t have been surprised had she gained a nomination for The Dark Knight Rises. Chastain, on the other hand, is very quickly becoming one of my favourite actresses. It’s astounding how quickly her name went from ‘unknown’ to ‘house-hold’, and she did that through all of her hard work and effort and a willingness to wait for her moment to come.

Both are nominated for Oscars this year – thankfully in different categories – and they are my pick to win. Hopefully, by the end of the ceremony, they’ll both have made use of their speech notes.

Andrew Garfield

I think Garfield was robbed of a nomination for his work in The Social Network, which matched that of Jessie Eisenberg (who I’m not putting on this list, but probably should mention), and I’ve enjoyed other performances of his that I’ve seen – The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and The Amazing Spiderman – but he was robbed. That said, I’m kind of tentative to put his name on this list because while I’m sure he will continue to impress in the years to come, I wouldn’t say he is quite deserving of a win yet. A nomination, definately, but not a win just yet.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

JGL is incredible, I’m impressed every single time he appears on screen and he’s easily one of my favourite actors. He has demonstrated that he is a fantastic comedic actor – (500) Days of Summer and Third Rock from the Sun – a powerful dramatic actor – Brick and 50/50 – and a surprisingly intimidating action hero – Inception and Looper. JGL has fantastic range and it’s obvious how much he puts in to every role. That said, as much as I would like to see him hold that statuette, I don’t think he is quite there yet. I’d say his best performance yet would be 50/50 and I would have liked to have seen him nominated for that, but I just don’t think he’s completely ready. It is going to happen, don’t doubt that. He is going to take an award home one day. Just… not quite yet. His time will come.

Tom Hardy

Tom Hardy’s time is now. Hardy is a phenomenal actor with an incredible range. Even his ‘lesser’ performances are astounding. Give the guy an Oscar. I had reservations when I heard he was cast as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, having only seen him in Inception as the suave Eaves, but then seeing a single scene from Bronson completely changed my mind. I was so impressed with his stint in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which showed his incredible vulnerability… I could go on. He’s an excellent, excellent actor.

Chloe Grace Moretz

CGM – I’m not sure if I like the acronym in this instance… And you know how I like my acronyms for actor’s names… Anyway…

Moretz is another actress who exploded onto our screens and, before we realised it, she was everywhere and we loved her for it. There are quite a few child actors who were astounding whilst quite young, but disappeared from the spotlight around the time the got into their late teens, but Moretz doesn’t look like she’s going anywhere, and that’s probably because she’s fantastic. She brings a real maturity to her roles that’s well above her age, while still keeping that air of youth about her, and while she probably doesn’t deserve an Oscar now, she will in the years to come. It seems like she picks her roles reasonably well – there have been a couple of not-so-great films, but she was always good in them! She’s definitely one that we should keep a close eye on.

Helena Bonham Carter

She is like Tom Hardy, just give her one already. Her range is brilliant and you believe everything she does, whether she’s the Queen of England or Marla Singer, she always delivers and she always comes out on top.

Jim Carrey

Carrey is a fantastic actor who I think is always overlooked when it comes to considering good actors. Yes, he’s goofy and ‘zany’ and wonderfully over-the-top, and yes, he has done quite a few bad comedies, but he’s always worked hard and given his all to every role. That said, he is a great serious actor, too, and people seem to forget that. Just look at his turns in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or The Truman Show – absolutely outstanding performances. It’s just that everyone seems to think of him as the man who speaks out of his arse, without realising just how good he is. I mean, you really believed he was speaking out of his arse.

Quentin Tarantino – As a director

Tarantino already has an Oscar to his name, for the incredible Pulp Fiction screenplay, but he’s always been overlooked when it came to giving him a directing win. He is a fantastic director – not only is he able to stage things in an impressive, stylistic and intense manner, without losing any dramatic tension or feeling or emotion, but he’s able to coax fantastic, iconic performances out of many, many actors. More so, he’s an interesting director who makes interesting films, and is definitely deserving of recognition.

Christopher Nolan

You were probably expecting this one. It’s no secret I’m a Nolan fan, but it’s only because he hasn’t let me down yet. All his films are excellent; he plays with form fantastically and was able to pull off making a huge blockbuster movie smart, intelligent and more than a simple genre film multiple times. His scripts are always fascinating, he directs his actors and explosive set-pieces with the same delicate hand to truly make his films a spectacle. I predict one year will be the year of Nolan – it might not be for a while, but one year, he’s going to sweep everything, and it will be just deserved.

There are way too many more people who have sprung to mind whilst I’ve been writing this list, so I’m just going to list them quickly:

Laura Linney
Robert Downey Jr.
David Fincher
Martin McDonagh
Hugh Jackman
Will Smith
Samuel L. Jackson
Johnny Depp
Gary Oldman
Leonardo DiCaprio

And I’m sure there are more, but I just can’t think of them at the moment. Who do you think’s most deserving of an Oscar? Is there anyone I’ve missed, or anyone I’ve been too kind to? Are you already sick of the Oscar posts?

If so, I apologise for the next month and a half. There are going to be a lot of them.