Review - Elysium

Neil Blomkamp follows up his auspicious debut District 9 with Elysium, a science-fiction that's just as violent and icky as his first feature but without the deftness of story or subtext to justify it.

150 years in the future, Earth has deteriorated into a cesspool of disease and poverty. The wealthy 1% jumped ship long ago by inhabiting a glorious space station – Elysium – with all the pristine comforts money can buy; including magic medicare machines that can instantly cure any ailment. Just like that! Desperate immigrants from Earth are eager to jump aboard illegal shuttle flights to the orbiting utopia, much to the chagrin of its steely defense secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster), who would sooner eschew the rulebook and blast everything within 100 miles of her precious paradise than allow one disease-riddled earthling to set foot on it.

Sunday Top Ten: Pet Peeves and Highlights of the 2012/13 Awards Season

I decided for this last piece of Oscar coverage to split the difference between stuff that bugged me and stuff that made me happy. I could probably come up with ten highlights and ten pet peeves, but it feels cleaner to go with five of each. I will however acknowledge some things that just missed the peeves list (the Lincoln makeup snub and Global TV's SAG Awards snafu) and just missed the highlights list (Argo making history and Barbara Streisand).

And now, my top five pet peeves, and top five highlights of the 2012/13 awards season:

Golden Globes recap

Ben Affleck's Argo triumphed in Best Director and Best Picture at the Golden Globes, making good on the buzz it had accummulated before it disipated upon last Thursday's Academy snub for Directing. I think we still need to consider it a legit contender for the big prize, even without that important Directing nod. It'll pull in lots of #2 and #3 votes, a huge plus with the preferential ballot.

Over in the Musical/Comedy category, I was thrilled to see Les Mis triumph when most had written the category off as an obligatory win for Silver Linings Playbook. The divisive musical also won for Anne Hathaway (expected) and Hugh Jackman (less expected, but very welcome).

The biggest moment of the night, however, came from Jodie Foster, who "officially" came out while accepting her Cecil B. DeMille Award. NBC seemed to prudishly mute that portion of her speech, but they couldn't silence the main message. She also waxed philosophic on lack of privacy in celebrity life and loneliness in her middle age. It was a rapidly fired off speech, but it felt vaguely significant. I'd love to listen to it again.

As for the show itself, hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler killed it. Their opening dialogue landed big laughs, and despite being sadly underused throughout the rest of the evening, they clearly set a high bar for Seth MacFarlane to try and top in six weeks' time.

Full list of movie winners after the cut.

Golden Globes live blog

So yeah, like everyone else on the net, I'll be live-blogging the Golden Globes when they begin in about three and a half hours time. Check back for updates throughout the evening.

7:33 - Usual banter on the red carpet. The women look cold. Apparently it's chilly out on the West coast tonight.

7:53 - Got my laptop. Got my port. Let's get this party started.

7:55 - Shameless Quartet plug by Dustin Hoffman. Supose I shouldn't prejudge (but I heard it's awful).

8:04 - "When it comes to torture, I trust the women who spent three years married to James Cameron" ZING! Fey and Poeller were great. Laughed at almost every joke.

8:09 - Supporting Actor: Goes to... Christoph Waltz in  Django Unchained. Weinstein at work, as always.