Inxeba (The wound) a provocative, brutal and emotional story, which documents the Xhosa culture of ukwaluka (circumcision) and a complicated relationship between closeted couple Xolani (Nakhane Toure) and Viji (Bongile Mantsai).  They meet every year at the initiation school where they are both caregivers and get a chance to be intimate, but Viji a married father struggles to accept his sexuality, and does not fully express his love for Xolani a single factory worker from Queenstown, who is seriously in love with him, but Xolani holds on hoping for the best.  Things turn sour when one of the initiates kwanda (Niza Jay) discover their secret and challenges Xolani to stand up for himself and become a man.  This film is beautifully shot and it has  scattered, but funny dialog. Is it Oscar worthy? You decide, but the best docudrama to come out of Mzansi Africa.


Image: @TheWound_SAfilm

And the winners are #Oscars 2016

Best picture:  Spotlight

Best actor in a lead role:  Leonardo DiCaprio "The Revenant"

Best supporting actor:  Mark Rylance   "Bridge of Spies"

Best actress in a lead role:  Brie Larson "Room"

Best supporting actress:  Alicia Vikander "The Danish Girl"

Cinematography:  "The Revenant"

Costume design:  "Mad Max:  Fury Road"

Directing:  "The Revenant"

Film editing:  "Mad Max:  Fury Road"

Makeup and hair styling:  "Mad Max:  Fury Road"

Score:  "The Hateful eight"

Original Song:  "Writing's on the wall" from spectre  (Sam Smith)

Sound editing:  "Mad Max:  Fury Road"

Sound Mixing:  "Mad Max:  Fury Road"

Foreign language film:  "Son of Saul"

Animated feature:  "Inside out"

Documentary feature:  "Amy"

Visual Effects:  "Ex Machina"

Production design:  "Mad Max:  Fury Road"

Original Screenplay:  "Spotlight"

Adapted Screenplay:  "The Big Shorts"

My 2016 Oscar predictions

Best picture
Room
The Revenant

Actor in a lead role

Leonardo DiCaprio  (The Revenant)  
Eddie Redmayne  (The Danish Girl)

Actor supporting role

Tom Hardy (The Revenant)


Actress in a lead role

Brie Larson (Room)
Jennifer Lawrence (Joy)

Actress supporting role

Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)

Cinematography

The Hateful eight
The Revenant

Costume design
The Danish Girl

Directing
The Revenant

Film editing
The Revenant

Production design 

The Danish Girl
The Revenant

Music original song

"Earned it"from Fifty shades of Grey (The weekend)

"Writing's on the wall from spectre


               

How to be single

Four women find themselves single in New York City.  Should they take full advantage of their singleness or stay away from the social scene altogether?  They go out every night to party hoping they find the one, this is a "girls want to fun film".  This picture is funny and  i had a good laugh, take the girls with you.

Vir al tyd

This Afrikaans chick flick, another one from Mzansi is an exquisite story of love and happiness, and shows that there is someone for everyone.  Nina (Donnalee Roberts) is left at the alter by her husband to be, and decide to celebrate anyway, after too much champagne and long night of parting, she wake up in a plane to the island of Mauritius for her honeymoon with an old lost friend Hugo (Ivan Botha) where they discover the love for each other again.  The film show flashbacks of their childhood, which is interesting because we get to see where they come from.  I was moved by the car accident scene that happened while they were trying to escape.  The subtitles were depressing though.  

Happiness is a four letter word

The cinema audience made this one enjoyable for me, the laughs, the clapping and the comments for me were amazing.  This Mzansi chick flick follows the lives of three established friends Zaza (Khanyi Mbau), Nandi (Mmabatho Montsho) and Princess (Renate Stuurman) through their work, love, social and financial lives in a theme of, duty, risk, work, deep,lust, mask,lies and torn.  They all face challenges and overcome them, while trying to find happiness.  The lesson here is choose what you really want and be happy.  i like the character of Bheki (Simo Magwaza) who is never home, but is loving husband and father.  It's interesting to know that the movie made about two million in its first week.  Watch this for the eye candy, and by the way this should not be called a chick flick, it's for everyone.

THE REVENANT

Should i say the best movie I've watched in a long time, and that Leonardo DiCaprio must get the Oscar nod for this one, a remarkable performance.  This is very emotional picture of courage, resilience, perseverance, love, pain, trust, hope and togetherness.  The words on the marketing poster says it all, "blood lost, life found".  There is a lot of debate about this motion picture like, how did DiCaprio survive a bear attack, those wounds were deep.  I enjoyed the connection between Hugh (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his son, "they do not hear your voice, they see your colour", a line Hugh say to his son.  One of the best scenes is one where Hugh removes the intestine of a dead horse and make shelter for the night to keep warm.  This is an exceptional film.