2019 Oscar Awards - who will win

2019 Oscar Awards - who will win

So, it's time - the 91st Academy Awards.

And as ever, ahead of Hollywood handing out awards on Sunday night, it's time to predict the 2019 Academy Award winners

Best Picture - Roma

Best Director - Alfonso Cuaron

Best Actor - Rami Malek

Best Actress - Glenn Close

Best Supporting Actor - Mahershala Ali

Best Supporting Actress - Regina King

Best Animated Feature - Spider-Man : Into The Spider-Verse

Best Original Screenplay - The Favourite

Doomsday Week in GTA Online, New Principe Deveste Eight, Principe T-Shirt Unlock and More

Doomsday Week in GTA Online, New Principe Deveste Eight, Principe T-Shirt Unlock and More

It began as little more than a myth: whispers on the dark net that Principe's top engineers were working on their first ever supercar. Then the myth became a legend: a few leaked photographs so provocative that possession was a federal crime. Then the legend became a rumor: a car so exclusive no one could confirm it existed in the real world. And now, thanks to you, that rumor is about to become a very messy headline.

Introducing the Principe Deveste Eight, now available at Legendary Motorsport.

There's more than one way for you and your squad to earn big this week. Further your career in post-apocalyptic vehicular warfare with Double GTA$ & RP in the Arena War Series all week long. Plus, launch into any one of the Doomsday Heist finales to score 2X GTA$ and RP payloads. 

Rush to an IAA base under the Satellite Relay Station in the desert. Foreign agents are attacking and trying to hack government servers - they need to be stopped.

Launch an operation on a foreign submarine lurking off the coast. One team boards through an airlock and disables the sub, while the other holds off enemy agents in an aircraft above.

A Missile Launch Base has fallen into the wrong hands. Storm the base, clear it out, stop the warhead from launching, and save the day.

To mark the release of Principe's first foray into the 4-wheeled market, play anytime this week to unlock the Principe Black T-shirt.

Playing GTA Online at any point this weekend on Saturday February 23rd or Sunday February 24th makes you eligible for this month’s 4th and final GTA$250K bonus, which will be awarded when you log in next weekend.

Plus, if you loaded up GTA Online February 16 - 17, play anytime this coming weekend to claim your outstandingGTA$250K.

Host your own Doomsday Heists with discounts on Facilities and Facility upgrades:

• Facilities – 30% off
• Facility Renovations – 30% off
• Hangars – 40% off

Also, take 30% off the weaponized Doomsday vehicles and more:

• Mammoth Avenger
• Imponte Deluxo
• Mammoth Thruster
• TM-02 Khanjali
• Ocelot Stromberg
• RCV
• Buckingham Akula
• Volatol 
• HVY Barrage
• HVY Chernobog
• P-996 Lazer

For more information on all the latest GTA Online bonuses, head to the Social Club Events page.

After Life: Netflix Review

After Life: Netflix Review

Watching Ricky Gervais' new series After Life, there's a deepening sense of isolation and low-level anger over its six episode run.

But as the series develops, the acid edges Gervais' Tony has start to soften, as the show starts to wrap itself around the complicated edges of grief, denial and anger.

Tony's had a happy life - 25 years with his wife, before breast cancer stole her. Episode two of the show starts with a stark image, rife in its honesty, as Tony offers up a razor to his wrists in the bath to rid himself of the wretchedness he feels.

Yet, he's stopped from doing so, not by a revelation or epiphany - it's the fact his dog comes into the bathroom, reminding him that she needs feeding. It's this moment of frank honesty, which reveals much about what After Life is trying to do. Something banal needs doing - and that pulls him off the ledge.

Admittedly, the first episode makes Tony a tough character to empathise with or even begin to love.

Sure, he's got the trademark Gervais laugh in flashbacks with Tony and his wife Lisa, but this sallow, slumped man of now is not what you'd expect from a character on screen these days - flashes of malice line some of the barbs, others are just him lashing out in frustration, blackly hitting targets you'd not expect - and delivering c-bombs aplenty in the first outing to make you question the second's necessity for viewing.

However, what Gervais does is remarkable in some ways - but disappointingly, it won't be for everyone - even though we'll all be afflicted by what it's tackling.

It's a study of grief admittedly, but it's also a study of how people react to grief - from the person in the maelstrom to those on the outskirts who try to tackle what's best for their friend.

Bathed in veracity, a conversation with his nephew two-thirds of the way into episode two reveals much. Sure, it's Gervais' trademark atheism writ large, but when the nephew asks why the doctors couldn't save Lisa, Tony says the words without realising, confessing that they tried all they could. It's a flailing bitterness in the wind moment, a moment that speaks to the psyche of those of us in grief - that sometimes, you don't win; sometimes, you don't get the ending you wanted - but sometimes, honesty is what counts.

It's the moments like this in After Life which count; cut through the bleakness like life smashes through dreams. And while Gervais still delivers some bittersweet laughs with Tony's frustrations against the endless inanities of the idiocy of those he works with at his local paper, it's once the sound and fury of the anger subsides, that you see the honesty of the work and bittersweet beauty of it within.

New Rocketman trailer is here

New Rocketman trailer is here

Here is your first look as the Rocketman trailer with Taron Egerton starring as Elton John.

The Seagull: DVD Review

The Seagull: DVD Review

Based on the play by Anton Chekhov, director Michael Mayer's take on The Seagull is a light, breezy film that benefits greatly from its core cast.

Bening, Stoll and Ronan all breathe exceptional life into their respective roles.

Bening is Irina, an actress whose insecurities stretch to admonishing her son Constantin and mocking his attempts at play-writing. Called in to visit her ailing brother, a tale unfolds of how Constantin met Saoirse Ronan's Nina, an appalling wannabe actress who became his muse.

However, Irina has brought with her the famous writer Boris Trigoran (Stoll, a stoic presence) whose appearance at the family home causes rifts and consternation as all tremble in the shadow of his reputation.

As the rifts deepen, everyone's insecurities increase exponentially...

As mentioned, The Seagull benefits from a career best from Bening, whose scoffing and mocking of those around her surfaces amid her own insecurities. Bening more than delivers, adding touches of nuance when required and bringing the pain to the fore as it's needed.

Equally Stoll and Ronan add much to the ensemble as the combination of comedy and drama unfolds; additional support from a growingly unhinged Elisabeth Moss as an infatuated woman lends the necessary scorn to the piece.

However, some of the hints of destruction are not seen on the screen, and with the flashbacks played out only to a point, The Seagull doesn't quite deliver the emotional heft that's necessary in times. An attempted suicide falls flat, a discussion of one character left bereft feels stripped of the heft - granted, it's a different approach but given the denouement relies on the emotion of the past as the script comes full circle from the flashbacks, it feels a little like The Seagull cheats - even if it does follow Chekov's play.

Fortunately, biting dialogue and stellar performances detract from the downsides, and The Seagull takes flight when it needs to, but fails to soar into the skies when it should. 

Stan & Ollie: Film Review

Stan & Ollie: Film Review

Cast: John C Reilly, Steve Coogan, Shirley Henderson, Nina Arianda
Director: Jon S Baird

Less a film about an actual break-up, more a piece about the aftermath, Stan & Ollie's tale of a degenerating work partnership and the effects of long-term friendship.

Beginning in 1937 with Coogan's Stan Laurel refusing to sign a new contract with studio head Hal Roach at the peak of their fame, the cracks show when Oliver Hardy (Reilly in a spot-on turn as the infamous gambler and womaniser Babe) doesn't demonstrate solidarity with his on-screen chum.

Fast forward 16 years and the motion pictures have dried up, the crowds have largely deserted and the audiences have moved on, Baird's film follows the duo in the twilight of their career as they pursue live shows in the UK.

Whilst Stan & Ollie doesn't exactly push the envelope in terms of on-screen presentation, but it's pleasantly evocative of an era long since forgotten in a world that revolves around CGI.

Simply and affectionately presented, Stan & Ollie benefits greatly from everything being laid bare on the table - the performances pickle in their own bittersweet moments, and the finale is designed - and succeeds in - to deliver a lump to the throat.

Coogan and Reilly encapsulate the duo perfectly; from Coogan's slight stumbles as he delivers Laurel's trademark speech patterns, to Reilly's capturing of Hardy's performance tics, this is a deeply affectionate tribute to the duo.

But more than that the bittersweet touches and hints of a friend not wanting to let down another friend are subtly painted in and liberally applied throughout. More goes unsaid during the film, but when the moments need to be delivered in the final 10 minutes, it's perfectly dispatched for superb effect.

At its core, Stan & Ollie is a film about friendship, of the peaks and troughs, of the resentments both spoken and kept internalised - and Coogan and Reilly make wondrous fists of both the sub-text and the physical demands of Laurel and Hardy's routines, which are recreated throughout.

There's wonderful support from Henderson and Adrianda as their wives, with their spiky relationship echoing that of Laurel and Hardy themselves, and showcasing a different paradigm of much the same relationship mechanic - it's fair to say their arrival enlivens things a little, but the groundwork's already been done by Reilly and Coogan with ease.

Bathed in melancholy, with a wonderful opening tracking shot that mixes both the truth of the Laurel and Hardy dynamic as well as the need to constantly perform for the public no matter how fleetingly, Stan & Ollie is a fitting celebration and a biopic that's haunting and anything but another fine mess.

Vox Lux: Film Review

Vox Lux: Film Review

Cast: Natalie Portman, Raffey Cassidy, Willem Dafoe, Jude Law, Jennifer Ehle
Director: Brady Corbet

Brady Corbet's Vox Lux aims to shock, albeit unintentionally.

Its opening is as powerful as it is mundane, beginning as we do with Raffey Cassidy's Celeste going back to school after the holidays. To say more is to deprive you of the jolt, but needless to say Corbet's opening salvo puts our heroine on a path she'd not expected as tragedy comes calling.

As Celeste begins to find her singing voice, she's aided by her agent (Jude Law) as Vox Lux's pre-2001 episode begins to chart her career ascent as a singer. Book-ended by both a personally major event and a US event of the time, Celeste's life is tarnished with tragedy.

The messy scrappy second half of the film picks up 16 years later with Portman portraying Celeste as she mounts the comeback trail, before something else threatens to overwhelm her and her plans.

Vox Lux is a pompous, self-obsessed, pretentious mite of a movie - and some will run lovingly into its arms because of that very fact, while others will head in the opposite direction screaming.

But its two halves division causes an issue, and the first's stronger loss-of-innocence tale towers over the second, with a subtlety of direction and script helping propel it along (as well as Dafoe's booming voiceover pomposity).

However, its second half is blessed by a ferocious Portman, who revels in the Gaga-esque edges of the character, but who makes the self-loathing feel all too real, after years of insecurities eat away at her from the first years of her life and career as she teeters on the cusp of her journey.

There's a bravura edge on Corbet's filmmaking, even if the script and its ultimately disappointing end make parts of the film feel uneven. As an artistic endeavour, it's second to none, revelling in its luxuries in the second half, but dawdling in its emotional waters early on.

Vox Lux is polarising to be sure - is it a commentary on the music industry, on society and its violence, is it a piece about how we've always been anchored in violence and its effects?

No one is telling for sure as it ends, but what is certain about Vox Lux is that it's a piece of film-making which will shock you out of the dullness that pervades cinemas these days. And while that power is never quite as stringent as in its first half, its effects linger long after it's ended.