give jennifer (and leo!) the oscar!

hah! just finished watching 'dreamgirls' and jennifer hudson was indeed, a revelation. probably it was the role because it was really a challenging one, but an actress of lesser confidence would have crumbled right there. who knew that j-hud had it in her?

she swapped dialogues against, and had shouting matches with last year's oscar winner jamie foxx, and she didn't seem to wince. neophyte? not this one. beyonce was beautiful all throughout, no question about that, but this was not her movie. sorry, b.

my friend j and i went to the grove as early as lunch-time to watch this but unfortunately, tickets to the first four screenings have been sold-out that the first slot available was at 11:05 pm (a full 12 hours later!) and 12:05 am. we opted for the 11:05 and called our friends m & r if they wanted to join us.

we watched 'blood diamond' first and i was moved by leonardo's performance. he's really good in this film. he's nominated for best actor at the golden globes for this film and for 'the departed' (which i did not see). for the oscar race, apparently, you can be nominated only once, and they will get the one with the higher votes. which would be bad for leo, since he delivered two fine performances, his votes will be divided. and if ever he gets nominated, the bigger problem is: will the academy make him win? i was rooting for him last year for 'the aviator' but no, the academy just won't give it to him. did i hear scorsese?

anyhow, 'blood diamond' was quite heavy with all the blatant killings. i read in GQ that the diamond industry is going to come up with a campaign to somehow clean up their name which was somehow tainted by the movie. the actors delivered honest and real performances and i'm happy i watched this. (it was either this or apocalypto. will catch that one some other time.)