MOST ENTERTAINING FEATURE

Salt

The Expendables

Machete

Tron: Legacy

Iron Man 2

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

How to Train Your Dragon

Toy Story 3

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole

Tangled

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Exit Through the Gift Shop

The Two Escobars

Waiting for Superman

Once Brothers

Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue

SLEEPER HIT OF THE YEAR

Unthinkable

The Green Zone

Centurion

Daybreakers

Legion

BEST FOREIGN FEATURE

Four Lions - United Kingdom

Animal Kingdom - Australia

Micmacs - France

Ondine - Ireland

Cell 211 - Spain

BEST INDEPENDENT FEATURE

Breaking Upwards

Winter’s Bone

Cyrus

The Kids Are All Right

The Trotsky

THE ROE v WADE AWARD

Clash of the Titans

The Last Airbender

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Saw VII

Cop Out

BEST ZOMBIE PICTURE OF THE YEAR

[Rec ²]

BEST PICTURE

Shutter Island

Inception

127 Hours

The King’s Speech

Black Swan

BEST DIRECTOR

Martin Scorcese - Shutter Island

Darren Aronofsky - Black Swan

Christopher Nolan - Inception

Danny Boyle - 127 Hours

Joel and Ethan Coen - True Grit

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Pete Postlethwaite

The 2010 Gypsy Ballots

I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!!

It’s awards season again, and I for one am not in a red carpet mood. I should be scouring the nominees lists, constantly adding to and crossing off my “To Watch” lists, and arguing about certain questionable nominations. Instead, I’m on Wikipedia looking up the definition of battered wife syndrome and wondering why I keep coming back to awards shows that treat my intelligence so badly.

For me, it started years ago, when A Beautiful Mind was going for the Oscar sweep. But when it finally came down to it, Denzel Washington and Halle Berry took home the gold for their portrayals of a confused whorebag, and a single mother (see what I did there?). This was compounded when the Academy decided to nominate 10 films for Best Picture, meaning the already sparse choices were going to be watered down more than a drink at Applebee’s. The last straw was when motherfucking Avatar, which I loved for it’s entertainment magnitude and technological achievement, was nominated for Best Picture.

Like a fat kid in dodgeball. I’m out.

So this year, for the above reasons (and because we’re smarter than everyone) sexy gypsy is doing our own awards, which we’ve cleverly titled:

The 2010 Gypsies

We’ve mixed everything from The Academy, The HFPA, and IFC into one big nominees list. Categories like Best Feature, Best Director, Best Animated Feature, and Best Foreign Feature are on the list along with Best Independent Feature and Best Documentary. In addition, we’ve created some of our own categories:

Biggest Sleeper of the Year - Films that flew under the radar and surprised us all.
Most Entertaining Feature - They’ll never get an Oscar, but they were damn fun to watch.
Best Zombie Picture - Hey, we love zombies.
The Roe v Wade Award - Horrible, horrible films that should never have been allowed their first breath.

So be on the lookout for our official nominees list and ballots next week after the Packers beat the Steelers (suck it, Pittsburgh).

-GWG

Let’s make Round 2 even better than last year.

Enjoy…

How in holy, blazing, snowball devouring hell has Jeff Bridges never won an Oscar???

If you’re anything like us, one of the first things you did when you woke up Tuesday morning was check out the announcement of the 2010 Academy Award nominations. And if you’re really like us, you were a bit disappointed with the list.

We’ve known for a while that the Academy planned to nominate ten films for best picture this year instead of the usual five. Unfortunately, this was a really, really weak year for mainstream film. Out of the ten, we consider six to be immediate throw-aways (Avatar, An Education, Precious, The Blind Side, A Serious Man, Up), leaving only four solid contenders (Up in the Air, Inglourious Basterds, The Hurt Locker, District 9).

Acting has also seen better years. The nominees this year include low points like Morgan Freeman (Best Actor) and Matt Damon (Best Supporting) in Invictus (both played themselves with African accents), Sandra Bullock (Best Actress) in The Blind Side (the chick from Miss Congeniality and The Net? Really???), and Stanley Tucci (Best Supporting) in The Lovely Bones (great actor, not his best role or film).

High notes include Jeff Bridges and Woody Harrelson finally getting some much overdue love (Best Actor, Crazy Heart and Best Supporting, The Messenger respectively), Carey Mulligan (Best Actress) for her breakthrough role in An Education, and Christoph Waltz (Best Supporting, Inglourious Basterds) and Mo’Nique (Best Supporting, Precious) as our only two real locks this year.

In one of the biggest travesties since LOTR: Return of the King, Avatar has beennominated for NINE f-ing awards (Best Picture, Director, Original Score, Original Screenplay, Art Direction, Cinematography, Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects). As entertaining and visually awe-inspiring as it was, there was nothing at all original about the score or the screenplay, and putting it up against Tarantino and Reitman is just insulting.

We still have a few major films to watch, as well as a lot of foreign, documentary, and short nominees. Expect to see our official preview, along with our personal Oscar ballots, in a few weeks. Until then, to see the full list of nominees click here.

Alright people, it’s awards season again. Time to roll out the red carpet, dish about celebrities, and gossip about who’s wearing what and going with who, right? Wait, who said “right”? Get the fuck out of here, Hugh Jackman, no one wants to hear you sing!

This is sexy gypsy. Which means we’ve all spent the last few months hyping up Kathryn Bigelow and The Hurt Locker, and now it’s time to judge the nominees, talk shit about the winners, and make sure Kanye’s good and liquored up, just in case.

Last year’s Academy Awards were probably the best since 2006, with a lot of good films, and plenty of solid wins. Last year was also the first time we actually paid attention to the Golden Globes, and they appeared to be a good indicator of Oscars to come. This year, however, we have many mixed feelings; we’re confused, worried, and a little sleepy. Here’s why:

THE GOOD:

Best Actor in a Drama: After a lot of great roles, and some near misses, Jeff Bridges is finally getting some love for his role in Crazy Heart, taking the Globe for Best Actor in a Drama. Granted, he was up against Morgan “Like a Twinky” Freeman, and Tobey Maguire (who played his role in Brothers like Adam Sandler’s Waterboy), but it’s good to see him win.

Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical: It comes as no surprise that Meryl Streep is adding more trophies to the case. Despite an obviously lopsided script, Streep stole the show and became Julia Child, earning a Best Actress Globe. For anyone who says “she has enough awards”, that’s like saying Brett Favre has enough records. When you’re that good, it’s gonna happen one way or another.

Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Musical: Saying you didn’t like Precious is the same as telling the liberal guilt-ridden among us that you hate puppies. Well we didn’t like Precious. (but we do love puppies!) First of all, the actual title is: “Precious: Based on a Novel by Sapphire”, which is just fucking stupid. Second, instead of an honest “look at life on these streets” film, they made a “look how sad and stereotypical and fucked up this poor black girl’s life is” film. Despite that, Mo’nique managed to de-board Soul Plane, and give an emotional performance with a despicable character, giving her a well-deserved Supporting Actress award.

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama: Probably the best choice this year was Christoph Waltz for his creepy-yet-articulate Nazi officer in Inglourious Basterds. Considering the competition (Stanley Tucci, Christopher Plummer, Woody Harrelson, Matt Damon), his Best Supporting Actor award gave us hope that the HFPA isn’t totally blind.

Best Screenplay: And finally, Jason Reitman brought home a Globe for his original screenplay for Up in the AIr. He was a little pissed that he lost best picture, but expect to see him at the Academy Awards as well.

THE BAD:

One word: Avatar. Avatar is an amazing achievement in CGI and motion capture technology, and the 3-D factor didn’t hurt. It is possibly one of Cameron’s best films, technically speaking. But winning Golden Globes for Best Picture and Best Director is kinda ridiculous. The story was borrowed, the score was unoriginal, and even though acting and directing were on point, what made this film was the budget, pure and simple. With The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, and Up in the Air in the same category, this was just a poor choice.

THE QUESTIONABLE:

Best Actress in a Drama: We haven’t seen The Blind Side yet, but it’s hard to believe Sandra Bullock could legitimately beat out Helen Mirren or Emily Blunt. However, it’s not the craziest win in recent years, for example—Jennifer Hudson. And both the HFPA and the Academy have been known to make…ahem…political choices. We just hope this isn’t one of those years.

Best Comedy or Musical: The Hangover is hands down the funniest movie since Anchorman. The sheer entertainment value and Vegas-style buffet of hilarious one-liners are obvious. As a film, though, we’re not sure it really stacks up against the writing of (500) Days of Summer, the acting talent in It’s Complicated, or the direction of Julie and Julia.

Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical: We can’t decide if Robert Downey Jr. picks bad projects to be great in, or if someone just needs to throw him a freaking bone, but his Best Actor nomination for Sherlock Holmes, immediately following one for Tropic Thunder, is kinda depressing. If Daniel Day-Lewis saw Sherlock Holmes on the street, he’d call him a Bastard in a Basket and throw him down a drill shaft. And with Matt Damon and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the same category, this win warrants a pause.

Best Animated Feature: It’s difficult sometimes to rate animated features. Probably because 90% of them are so damned delightful. All of the nominees this year were solid films. But the serious, sometimes depressing tone of Up, pitted against the whimsical jello house that is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Wes Anderson’s first good film EVER (Fantastic Mr. Fox) is a tough call, and we’re not convinced the Globes made the right one.

Television Globes for the year were uninspired, and we really didn’t care; but for anyone dying to know, here’s some highlights:

Tru Blood was neglected…again. Californication was neglected…again. Michael C. Hall (Dexter) beat cancer, then he beat Hugh Laurie (House) for Best Actor in a Drama. Yes, Glee won best comedy/musical, so you can sing your fucking little heart out. Tina Fey (30 Rock) lost to a schizophrenic Toni Colette (United States of Tara). When they announced Alec Baldwin’s (30 Rock) win for Best Actor in a comedy, they found him in the bathroom doing blow off a groupie’s ass with David Duchovny (Californication). Not really, but wouldn’t that be the best damn crossover episode ever??

All in all, we can’t be too mad at the Golden Globes this year; there were very few horrible choices. We’re still not as excited as last year, though. Maybe it’s because our man-crush Danny Boyle got so many awards last time, but with all the questionable wins so far this could end up being a “What The Fuck?” year at the Oscars . And with 10 nominees in the major categories coming our way next month, we are less than pleased about it.

Finally. It’s over. The 2000s. The 00s. The aughts. Whatever the fuck you want to call it. We’re done. And with the close of the decade, comes the obligatory nostalgic look back. And while we’ve suffered through a lot of bullshit these past ten years, there is also much to be appreciated—especially when it comes to film.

When we sat down to compile the best of the aughts, our initial list was almost 300 strong. We were blown away by the sheer number of dope movies that had come out.

This decade: We were introduced to Rian Johnson and Jason Reitman. Danny Boyle got the props we’ve been saying he deserved for years. Christopher Nolan gave us a superhero movie that didn’t suck. Charlie Kaufman decided to actually direct one of his screenplays. The Oscars officially became a joke. And sexy gypsy was born.

A lot of coffee, cigarettes and Wes Andersen bashing went into making this list. But we’re happy with the way it turned out. Don’t expect to see dumb shit like The Lord of The Rings or Dream Girls here. Instead you’ll see films from The Coen Brothers, Jim Jarmusch and Takashi Miike. The few honorable mentions that didn’t quite make the cut are at the bottom of the post.

Anyway, without any further rambling, here it is. sexy gypsy’s Best of the Aughts…

(in alphabetical order)

1) Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000)

I was 15 years old when Almost Famous dropped and changed my life. It was the first time I realized people would pay you to run around, listen to music and talk about it. So in a way, sexy gypsy wouldn’t even be here without this movie. It featured a great cast—Patrick Fugit (who shows up twice on this list), Zooey Deschanel, Anna Paquin, Frances McDormand aka Willem Dafoe (seriously, look that shit up. They look exactly alike. We still maintain they are the same person), Jason Lee, Philip Seymour Hoffman and even Jimmy Fallon. Add that to an immensely personal Cameron Crowe script, perfect music, and Billy Crudup screaming “I AM A GOLDEN GOD!” from atop a roof, and you have one damn fine film. —BIG

2) American Gangster (Ridley Scott, 2008)

3) American Psycho (Mary Harron, 2000)

4) Anchorman (Adam McKay, 2004)

5) Antichrist (Lars von Trier, 2009)

6) Audition (Takashi Miike, 2001)

7) Away We Go (Sam Mendes, 2009)

The Boondock Saints (Troy Duffy, 2000)

9) Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005)

10) The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson, 2009)

Last year, Rian Johnson’s Brick showed up on a sexy gypsy list of off-the-radar films, and we basically called it a one hit wonder. We officially apologize to Mr. Johnson. The Brothers Bloom, while very different from Brick, showed a matured sense of direction and style, with the same tone of homage and innovation, and a playful sense of humor. As an elaborate, yet completely character-driven con film, this is moviemaking at it’s finest. —GWG

11) Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch, 2005)

12) Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)

13) Choke (Clark Gregg, 2008)

14) The Chumscrubber (Arie Posin, 2005)

Teenage suicide is never a good thing. Unless it brings about the complete destruction of idyllic white suburbia. What’s interesting about this film is that it doesn’t show you underlying problems around the neighborhood, and then culminate with a death. The suicide happens at the beginning, and instead of being the breaking point, or even the catalyst, it is the loose thread that unravels everyone’s secrets and facades. It is beautifully written and acted, with a multi-generational, eclectic cast that actually fits very well together. —GWG

15) City of God (Fernando Meirelles, Katia Lund, 2002)

16) Coffee and Cigarettes (Jim Jarmusch, 2003)

17) Collateral (Michael Mann, 2004)

18) Crash (Paul Haggis, 2005)

19) Criminal (Gregory Jacobs, 2004)

20) The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)

21) The Departed (Martin Scorcese, 2006)

The Departed is the only film on this list I had to fight for. The Great White Gypsy hated it. But he’s crazy, so I had to veto. Granted, I am a confessed Scorsese groupie. The man has never made a film I didn’t love. And I’ve seen them all. Even the obscure ones like Boxcar Bertha. So maybe I was a little biased with this pick. But to me, anytime you can put Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg and Leonardo DiCaprio in the same movie and not make people want stab themselves in the eye, it’s a fucking win. Bonus points for having Nas and Flogging Molly on the same soundtrack. —BIG

22) The Devil’s Rejects (Rob Zombie, 2005)

Admittedly, Rob Zombie’s first venture, House of 1000 Corpses, was retarded. However, with a little less Horror rip-off, and a lot more disturbing violence, the sequel was a cult classic opening weekend. Zombie knows how to work a camera, but this film is probably the pinnacle of his work with the soundtrack. It starts with The Allman Brothers’ Midnight Rider, swells with a violent sequence to the tune of Terry Reid’s To Be Treated Right, and finishes with the best use of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird to date. All of this is driven home by a sobering message: There is no ice cream in your fucking future. —GWG

23) District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, 2009)

24) Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001)

25) The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003)

26) Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg, 2007)

27) Equilibrium (Kurt Wimmer, 2002)

28) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)

29) The Fall (Tarsem Singh, 2008)

This is one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. Tarsem Singh makes a huge leap up from his very respectable 2000 debut, The Cell, and tells us an engaging story in ways never before seen. In a time of crazy, overdone CGI and generic plot, The Fall was refreshingly organic. Great acting, directing, cinematography, and everything in between. —BIG

30) (500) Days of Summer (Marc Webb, 2009)

31) Garden State (Zach Braff, 2004)

32) Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)

33) Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000)

34) Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck, 2006)

35) The Hangover (Todd Phillips, 2009)

36) Havoc (Barbara Kopple, 2005)

37) High Fidelity (Stephen Frears, 2000)

Like Almost Famous, High Fidelity was one of those life defining movies for me. He owned a record store, argued about top five lists with his friends, organized his music collection autobiographically and pined over beautiful women. That was his whole life. How awesome is that? Almost Famous made me realize I could write about music, High Fidelity made me realize I wasn’t alone in obsessing over it. —BIG

HIGH FIDELITY BONUS: TOP 5 SONGS TO PLAY AT MY FUNERAL:

1) Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones

2) Ready To Die - The Notorious BIG

3) Bullet With Butterfly Wings - The Smashing Pumpkins

4) Funeral - The Clipse

5) Angel’s Son - Snot featuring Lajon Witherspoon from Sevendust

38) High Tension (Alexandre Aja, 2005)

39) Humpday (Lynn Shelton, 2009)

One of the things I will always remember about this decade is my discovery of Mumblecore. I started with The Puffy Chair and soon devoured films like Baghead, Mutual Appreciation and Funny Ha Ha. Though not always the best executed films, the genre intrigued me. And with the success of people like Lynn Shelton and Mark Duplass, I hope more people discover it. Humpday is an experience. You’re in the room, a silent observer—not just someone watching a film. Effortlessly hilarious and purposefully awkward, it is one of my favorite films of this year and definitely deserves a spot on the list. —BIG

40) The Hurt Locker (Katherine Bigelow, 2009)

41) Ichi the Killer (Takashi Miike, 2003)

42) Imaginary Heroes (Dan Harris, 2004)

43) In Bruges (Martin McDonagh, 2008)

44) In Search of a Midnight Kiss (Alex Holdridge, 2007)

45) Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)

46) Jarhead (Sam Mendes, 2005)

47) Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007)

48) Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003, 2004)

49) Kingdom of Heaven (Ridley Scott, 2005)

50) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black, 2005)

“You look up the ‘idiot’ in the dictionary, know what you’ll find?”

“A picture of me?”

“No, the definition of the word idiot, which you fucking are!!”

This film never gets old. Raymond Chandler meets Abbott and Costello. The mystery itself isn’t anything amazingly unique, but it’s entertaining and solid enough to hold up a great cast, one of the best narrations ever, and almost as many quotable quotes as Anchorman.

“Talking money…”

“A Talking monkey?”

“Talking monkey, yeah, yeah. Came here from the future. Ugly sucker, only says ficus.”

—GWG

51) Knocked Up (Judd Apatow, 2007)

52) Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)

53) Little Children (Todd Field, 2006)

54) Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, 2006)

55) Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)

56) Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003)

57) The Machinist (Brad Anderson, 2004)

58) Maria Full of Grace (Joshua Marston, 2004)

59) Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000)

60) Milk (Gus van Sant, 2008)

61) Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair, 2002)

62) Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)

63) 9 Songs (Michael Winterbottom, 2005)

A lot of people are quick to dismiss this film as unnecessarily explicit, self-indulgent, (not so) thinly veiled pornography. I couldn’t disagree more. Michael Winterbottom is a masterful storyteller, communicating an entire relationship with minimum dialogue and nine amazing songs. It’s an ambitious concept that in less capable hands would have failed miserably. But Winterbottom executes it perfectly. It’s on Netflix Watch Instantly right now. So if you haven’t seen it, do so now. —BIG

64) No Country for Old Men (The Coen Brothers, 2008)

65) O Brother Where Art Thou (The Coen Brothers, 2000)

66) Oldboy (Chan-wook Park, 2003)

The second film in Chan-wook Park’s Revenge Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance), Oldboy features some original camerawork, really cool fight scenes, and an emotional yet disturbing story that would make David Fincher blush. The hallway fight, done in one continuous shot, is a staple of discussion. But there are so many great scenes, so many impressive technical aspects and character moments, that it definitely warrants multiple viewings. We did want to include the entire trilogy on the list, as there is a noticeable arc and underlying theme across all three films. However, they are all separate, unrelated stories, and Oldboy stands out as the strongest link. —GWG

67) Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)

68) Purple Violets (Edward Burns, 2007)

69) Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme, 2008)

70) Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)

71) Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes, 2008)

72) The Road to Perdition (Sam Mendes, 2002)

73) The Salton Sea (D.J. Caruso, 2002)

74) Saw (James Wan, 2004)

75) A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater, 2006)

76) Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004)

77) Shopgirl (Anand Tucker, 2005)

78) Sin City (Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller, 2005)

79) Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle, 2008)

80) Snatch (Guy Ritchie, 2000)

81) The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach, 2005)

82) State and Main (David Mamet, 2000)

83) Sukiyaki Western Django (Takashi Miike, 2008)

What do you get when you mix Yojimbo, Django, and A Fistfull of Dollars? Actually, if you’re anyone but Takashi Miike, your head might explode. Lucky for us, the Japanese maestro of bloodshed helmed this crazy, entertaining, violent film about…Japanese cowboys? In Miike’s first American project, he decides to have Asian actors speaking John Wayne-style English while carrying six shooters and katanas. Oh yeah, and Tarantino has a couple cameos. Fucking great. —GWG

84) Surveillance (Jennifer Lynch, 2009)

85) Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)

86) There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)

87) Thirteen (Catherine Hardwicke, 2003)

In 2003, a pre-Twilight Catherine Hardwicke gave us a film that would alter the existence of little sisters forever. I saw Thirteen and wanted nothing more than to lock my sister in a closet until she was 20. That was the only conceivable way to save her from the unbearable plight of the teenage American girl. Most of the credit for this film goes to Nikki Reed, who was 15 when she wrote it. Thirteen is an exceptionally honest and powerful directorial debut from a director that proved to be a one hit wonder. —BIG

88) 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle, 2003)

Not many zombie movies offer much more than cheap thrills and bloody carnage. We’ll be honest, that’s why we love them. With Danny Boyle’s version, though, every aspect of the film is striking. The character development, the landscape, the music, and the balls-to-the-wall tension throughout make this film stand an infected, disembodied head above the rest in the genre. —GWG

89) 25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002)

90) The United States of Leland (Matthew Ryan Hoge, 2003)

This film makes us miss the early 2000’s, when all-star casts could still deliver a patient, tempered, emotional film. As a whole, this movie exhibits the same complex subtleties as its main character, a simple-minded teenager accused of murder. Themes of perspective, miscommunication, self-examination and accountability underline interesting cinematography and a beautiful story. —GWG

91) The Wackness (Jonathan Levine, 2008)

92) The Way of the Gun (Christopher McQuarrie, 2000)

93) Wicker Park (Paul McGuigan, 2004)

94) The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky, 2008)

95) Wristcutters: A Love Story (Goran Dukic, 2006)

96) Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Kevin Smith, 2008)

Honorable Mentions

Infernal Affairs (Wai-keung Lau, Alan Mak, 2002)

Though infinitely better than The Departed, this film had it’s share of problems, and spawned two unnecessary sequels.

Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

The story may have been borrowed, and the score unoriginal, but the visuals in this film (as well as the 3-D effects) will revolutionize cinema as we know it.

Life as a House (Irwin Winkler, 2001)

An amazing character study that develops well, with solid acting and a decent soundtrack. The downside: Hayden Christiansen

Irreversible (Gaspar Noe, 2002)

Very similar to Memento, this reverse film is well acted and directed, but without the intense, realistic, extremely long rape sequence, it might not have as much effect.

The Anniversary Party (Alan Cumming, Jennifer Jason Leigh, 2001)

Very well written and acted, even John C. Reilly tones it down a bit. Possibly a tad self indulgent, but the ecstasy scene is great.

Spartan (David Mamet, 2004)

Mamet’s esoteric uber-realism that doesn’t bother explaining itself to the ordinary viewer is the best and worst part of this film. It never stops moving, and maintains it’s staying power, it just doesn’t wait for anyone to catch up.

Layer Cake (Matthew Vaughn, 2004)

Great soundtrack, great acting, great story. Decent dialog, cinematography, cutting this one was hard, but just couldn’t stand up to some of the competition.

Thank You for Smoking (Jason Reitman, 2005)

Jason Reitman can do no wrong. Possibly Eckhart’s best performance. Another tough choice, but Juno kinda kicked it in the pork sword.

Hard Candy (David Slade, 2005)

Few movies can make me cringe. 15-year-old Ellen Page threatening to castrate Patrick Wilson? Really, really uncool. Great acting and writing, but a bit limited in it’s scope.

Renaissance (Christian Volckman, 2006)

Black and white motion capture animation set in Paris, 2054. The story’s a little muddled at times, but it’s just frickin cool to watch cartoon Daniel Craig shoot people in the face.

First and foremost, we would like to thank all of you who supported us on Sunday and followed the live blog. It was a big day for Sexy Gypsy, and it really set the bar high.

Unfortunately, the Academy set the bar pretty low for hosting this year. Hugh Jackman, while slightly entertaining and charismatic at first, bored us to death with the constant musical numbers. This is the Oscars, dammit, we didn’t watch the Grammies for a reason. Also, the new format for actor awards runs a little long for our taste. Do we really need past winners standing up there talking one by one about the nominees for this year? We know Heath Ledger was an amazing Joker, do we really need Kevin Kline to tell us again? And if Cuba Gooding Jr. wants to be on stage at the red carpets, maybe he should be in a movie that doesn’t suck ass.

So despite some random last minute decisions, Sexy Gypsy did pretty well in predicting the Oscars this year. Our preview was right on the money for the big categories, even if our ballots weren’t. Unlike past years, there were no really big upsets. So let’s recap:

Best Picture: We all knew that Slumdog Millionaire was going to sweep the awards again. Milk was an amazing contender, but couldn’t stand up to the sheer brilliance in editing, direction, sound, and writing that Slumdog brought. Well deserved.

Best Director: David Fincher and Ron Howard have done better work. Stephen Daldry’s presence, not only in this category, but also in every other category The Reader was nominated, was a ridiculous, unwarranted usurping of Sam Mendes’ rightful seat with Revolutionary Road. Van Sant gave him a good run for the money, but Danny Boyle couldn’t be ignored any longer. Well deserved.

Best Actor: Minus Brad Pitt, this category was stacked. Jenkins, Langella, Penn, and Rourke all gave amazing performances. But it really came down to the latter two, and even though Prop 8 could’ve pushed Penn to the win, he was fantastic, and at least Rourke is again on the radar. Questionable, but well deserved.

Best Actress: Anne Hathaway hasn’t been as typecast as most people believe. Her role in Havoc was enough for us to take her seriously. Unfortunately, she was up against two major actresses (not counting Melissa Leo or Angelina Jolie). However, Streep has had her Oscar recognition, and Winslet was due after so many dead end nominations. Well deserved, wrong film (should have been Revolutionary Road).

Best Supporting Actor: If you read our preview, you know our conspiracy theories in this category. But there was only ever a slight doubt in anyone’s mind that Ledger would walk with this one. His “eclectic” career aside, this was not only his best performance, but one of the best of all time. Hey Downey, why so serious? Well deserved.

Best Supporting Actress: This category wasn’t really stellar, but everyone did a good job in their roles. Amy Adams, however, was definitely a head above the rest, in emotion and in screen time. Predicting this one was disappointing, because we knew Cruz would take it for being involved in an otherwise-not-nominated Woody Allen film. Undeserved.

Other categories of interest

Foreign Language: Waltz with Bashir should’ve taken this, and most people thought it would. Always gotta be on the lookout for the underdog.

Shorts: It is surprising that On the Line or Manon on the Asphalt didn’t take it, considering they were more the Academy’s usual taste, but Toyland was interesting and well edited, and the only WWII film even nominated this year. Also surprising, but definitely exciting, was the Academy’s decision to look past Pixar’s usual animated brilliance and give the Oscar to La Maison en Petits Cubes, the emotional Japanese film with a French name.

Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire was an amazing adaptation, as shown by its eight wins this year. However, we still believe that, with any other director, the script would have fallen short. Doubt, though sub par in acting and directing, was an amazingly well written film, full of amazing dialogue. Milk was the obvious choice for Original Screenplay. It built and developed all the characters for the actors to round out, and there wasn’t a weak link in the bunch.

Another surprise was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. All three of this film’s awards (Visual Effects, Art Direction, and Makeup) beat out The Dark Knight, which was a thousand times better in all of them. This is either an apology to Fincher for ignoring Zodiac, or an apology to Brad Pitt that he will never, ever, ever be Batman. Robin, maybe, but not The Dark Knight.

Overall, a good year for movies, and a solid Academy Awards ceremony. We will of course be starting this all over again next November, but for now we return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Thanks for the support.

-Sexy Gypsy

We finally got here. Right now, The Great White Gypsy and I are sitting at our Oscar Party in Fremont, CA getting ready to start giving all you sexy gypsy readers our real-time reactions. I am going to try to live tweet this too, so you can follow me here. sexy gypsy affiliate and sometimes contributer, supertoast, will be live tweeting this event as well. DEFINITELY check her out for some hilarious insights into the evening. Follow her here.

My comments will be marked as BIG and The Great White Gypsy as GW

9:00 PM

BIG: Good shit everybody! I hope yall enjoyed our commentary, and more importantly the Oscars. We’re going out to celebrate the 1st  successful live blog on sexy gypsy and then we’ll be back in the next day or two with a recap.

Until Next Time, Your Fearless Leader

8:55 PM

GW: Next year’s Oscar host: Sam Mendes….

BIG: …and an angry mob…

GW: …led by Mickey Rourke and Anne Hathaway

8:53 PM

GW: Yeah buddy, sweep that shit.  People really need to start taking Danny Boyle seriously.

8:49 PM

BIG: Let’s get it Slumdog.

8:45 PM

BIG: And there is the obligatory Prop 8 reference. Also, I have $100 that says, in order to really understand the role of Harvey Milk, Sean Penn fully immersed himself in Gus van Sant’s asshole for a good 4 months.

8:44 PM

GW: Can’t be mad at that, I hate Sean Penn, and he was great.  I still think The Ram should run up there right now and staplegun him in the face.

BIG: Word.

8:41 PM

BIG: I hope Mickey Rourke wins so he can get on stage and bite the head off Sean Penn.

7:39 PM

BIG: This whole past winners talking about this year’s nominees thing is getting on my nerves. Fuck you and your self congratulatory bullshit.

8:32 PM

BIG: Expected, but undeserved. She should have won for Revolutionary Road, if at all.

8:29 PM

BIG: Ok, now that everyone is done sucking each other’s cocks can we please get to the winner?

GW: And why is Tim Burton talking about great actresses? Oh never mind, that’s just Sophia Loren.

BIG: EEEEEWWWWW!!!

8:27 PM

BIG: Kate Winslet is probably gonna win this. But when she does, it will be a slap in the face to Sam Mendes,Revolutionary Road and Nazi torturers everywhere. Also: Anne Hathaway is like 9 kinds of hot.

8:25 PM

GW: …and the Oscar for best stripper goes to: Marisa Tomei.

8:21 PM

The Namesake: YAAAAAAAAAAY….YEAH.

GW: IT’S ABOUT FUCKING TIME.

8:20 and like a second

BIG: MOTHERFUCKING DANNY BOYLE!!! FUCK YES!!!!!!

8:20 PM

BIG: Danny Boyle is my homeboy. He better fucking win.

8:18 PM

BIG: This shit is starting to drag.

8:07 PM

BIG: Who the fuck are these guys? Did someone forget their dry cleaning?? Also, Waltz with Bashir totally should have won that shit. I call shenanigans.

8:05 PM

GW: For the record, BIG only beat me by one.   But I’m still winning in every other aspect of life.  Game.  Set…hey other dog, FUCK YOU!

8:04 PM

BIG: I’d just like to say, after that category, there is no possible way The Great White Gypsy will beat me tonight. Game. Set. Match. Bitches.

7:56 PM

CURRENT SCORE: BIG - 11/18  GW - 10/18

7:54 PM

BIG: Yeah, it’s officially the year of Slumdog Millionaire.

7:46 PM

BIG: I really want to make fun of Jerry Lewis, but…yeah…

7:35 PM

BIG: Slumdog was a great film, but I really didn’t expect it to sweep every category. Props to Danny Boyle and them.

7:33 PM

Quick picture of us enjoying the Oscars.

7:31 PM

BIG: If I knew the motherfucking difference between sound editing and sound mixing, I totally would have got both them bitches right.

7:29 PM

GW: Also, someone explain the difference between sound editing and sound mixing…I don’t get it.

7:21 PM

GW: Best Will Smith movie ever.  BIG Gypsy says Independence Day.  Great White Gypsy says I Am Legend.  Namesake says Independence Day.  What do You think?  PS: You know what really grinds my gears?  Montages.  And you America…Fuck You.

7:18 PM

GW: I totally called that shit…I am the smartest man alive…and no one cares about this category.

7:16 PM

GW: I’m never thinking outside the box again…fuckin think-for-yourselfers…hi Tyson.

7:14 PM

BIG: Hey, why isn’t Religulous up for best documentary? Wait, Bill Maher isn’t a serious journalist OR filmmaker? He’s a comedian? Really? But he’s not even that funny…Huh, I’ve learned something tonight.

7:13 PM

CURRENT SCORE:  BIG - 7/11   GW - 6/11

7:08 PM

GW: Jake Gyllenhaal  is so proud right now…seriously, he deserves this.

7:07 PM

BIG: That is a fuckload of Ledgers.

7:05 PM

BIG: Cuba Gooda, Jr. is just bitter. Roberty Downey, Jr. is way blacker than him anyways.

7:03 PM

BIG: Is Philip Seymour Hoffman dying of AIDS right now?

6:56 PM

BIG: You know what would be way cooler than the High School Musical kids, Beyonce and Hugh Jackman?? If MIA brought her baby on stage and sang Paper Planes while smoking a blunt and then threw her child into the crowd.

6:54 PM

GW: From John Stewart to Hugh Jackman…we are officially in a recession

6:50 PM

BIG: We’re back. And for the record, I almost picked Toyland to win.

6:42 PM

WE ARE ON A CIGARETTE BREAK.

BE BACK IN 9 MINUTES.

6:35 PM

BIG: Well deserved, Slumdog could seriously clean up tonight.

6:31 PM

BIG: Motherfucking Ben Stiller. Crazy Jews…

6:26 PM

BIG: Someone please explain to me what the guy from Twilight is doing here?

6:21 PM

CURRENT SCORE:  BIG - 5/8  GW - 4/8

6:21 PM

GW: The Great White Gypsy is going down in flames…

6:17 PM

GW: Why isn’t Christian Bale yelling at this guy right now?

6:15 PM

BIG: Yeah, I think everything is back to normal. Great and it’s just in time to see Daniel Craig and some chick that looks like a foot to present Art direction.

6:14 PM

BIG: We are having technical difficulties, so just bear with us and keep hitting refresh.

6:10 PM

GW: Samurai Frenchmen are freaking awesome…I loved this short.  Sorry Pixar, didn’t pull this one out of the hat.

6:07 PM

GW: Who is surprised by this?  Autistic robots are the shit.

6:06 PM

BIG: I’m only up by one right now, but victory shall be mine.

6:05 PM

CURRENT SCORE:  BIG - 2/3   GW - 1/3

6:03 PM

GW: There is no charge for awesomeness…or attractiveness…

6:02 PM

BIG: The Great White Gypsy made a pun and it was funny. I laughed out loud aka LOLed if i was a douche. Get it? DOUBTed?? Get it??

6:01 PM

GW: Sorry I Doubted you Simon…

BIG: If Danny Boyle hadn’t directed that, the screenplay would’ve sucked.

5:57 PM

GW: The Beginning of Prop 8 guilt-fest

BIG: “a blah blah fucking blah. bitch bitch bitch, no one cares, i’m gay, someone please hold me…” Shut the fuck up and get off stage.

5:56 PM

BIG: Got ‘em coach

GW: Good call Academy

5:53 PM

GW: That dress definitely shows off Tina Fey’s morals…

BIG: Tina Fey is the best part of the evening so far.

5:51 PM

BIG: 1 award took 22 minutes to hand out. This is going to be a long night.

5:48 PM

GW: Consider Woody Allen’s dick sufficiently sucked.

5:47 PM

BIG: MOTHERFUCKING RIGHT!! WHERE IS MY MONEY??

5:46 PM

BIG: Shut the fuck up and tell me who wins!!

5:43 PM

BIG: What the fuck is this shit? The top 5 most undeserving Oscar Winners of All Time?

5:42 PM

GW: I’m very upset Jennifer Hudson didn’t get nominated for the superbowl

5:39 PM

GW: BIG is in love with Frank Langella

5:38 PM

BIG: The Great White Gypsy is completely in love with Hugh Jackman

5:36 PM

BIG: What the hell is he doing to Anne Hathaway?

5:34 PM

BIG: It’s already very apparent that Hugh Jackman was a poor fucking choice.

5:31 PM

BIG: It’s STARTING!!!!