Oscar Night

Surprise, surprise.  I stopped blogging for practically forever.  Just like the last time I had a huge gap in my writing, I said I did not stop watching movies in the meantime.  The same thing is true again.  Except, now it’s been over a month and I’m WAY backlogged here.  Why do I do this to myself?  Oh yeah, because I always start things with a lot of enthusiasm which quickly dies off.  I need to work on that.

As I’m typing this, the Oscars are on.  I’m really aggravated that I fell just short of seeing all the best picture nominees.  In the last month, I saw Life of Pi, Beasts of the Southern Wild, and Argo.  I had plans to see the remaining two, which were Amour and Django Unchained, but those plans fell through.  I know that those two will probably win every single award because those are the ones I didn’t see.  Oh well, I did the best that I could.  Amour was supposed to be at Red River but was pushed back for some reason.  Because I’m a little bit neurotic, I even emailed them about a month ago to see what “TBA” meant on their website.  The lady that runs the scheduling told me that it would be there by February 15^th, but it was pushed back to an undetermined date for a undetermined reason.  The day I was supposed to see Django Unchained, I fell down the stairs at Andy’s and wrecked my ankle.  Needless to say, I didn’t go that day.  Then the day I rescheduled for ended up not working either and that was the last day that this movie was playing anywhere in the state.   

I liked all of the last Oscar nominees that I saw.  I was really dreading seeing Life of Pi because it just did not look interesting to me at all.  I have avoided reading the book for years.  It’s one of those books that I felt like I was supposed to want to read, but never wanted to.  I broke my own rule about not seeing a movie of a book without having read the book.  I ended up loving the movie and now I want to go back and read the book.  It was really thought provoking and emotionally engaging.  I thought the actor that played Pi was really remarkable.  Argo was sort of the same way.  I had about zero interest in seeing it and was very pleasantly surprised.  I thought the plot was interesting, the acting was amazing, and the true tie to history pulled me in as well.  Beasts of the Southern Wild was weird as shit.  I mean truly weird.  The little girl, Quvenzhane Wallis, who is the main character in the movie was really hypnotizing though and I can see why she is the youngest best actress nominee in history.  It was a movie I was glad I watched, but did not LOVE it in the end.  It had really good elements, it was filmed in a beautiful way and really touching in some parts, but like I said, it was weird as shit.

To check a few more former best picture winners of my list, I have watched the following movies since my last blog:

The Sting - 1973

The Life of Emile Zola - 1937

Wings 1927/28

The Sting was really entertaining and only further reinforced how big of a crush I have on 1970’s Robert Redford.  I’m really glad I’m watching all these movies, because the Sting is one of those movies that I always have heard about, but never actually “felt” like watching.  When I force myself to watch some of these, I realize that I have actually been missing out on some great filmmaking. 

The life of Emile Zola was….wow…..god awful.  I absolutely hated it.  I tried to watch it, no lie, at least 10 times.  I fell asleep the first 9 times after about 10 minutes.  The 10^th time, I watched it in chunks because I could not sit through it straight.  I thought it was terribly unengaging, boring, and not particularly well done.  I know it was 1937, and you’re probably thinking I just don’t like old movies.  Well, that’s not true at all.  I love old movies.  I just didn’t love this old movie.  Emile Zola’s Wikipedia page even puts me to sleep.  It says, “Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism…blah, blah, blah”  That’s pretty much what the movie was like.  Borefest.

Wings was the first best picture winner of all time.  It was a silent film about two pilots during World War I.  I watched this with my dad, and although he will probably rat me out for falling asleep towards the end, that does not change the fact that I did like this movie overall.  (In my defense, I have not been sleeping well due to my hurt ankle, and I will blame my drowsiness on that)  Although there were some hokey scenes in this movie that caused us to chuckle even though they were supposed to be deadly serious, it was very entertaining and interesting to watch a silent film in the midst of all these films.  Filmmaking without sound is such a different experience and requires a totally different type of acting (hence the point of the film, the Artist.)  There were some pretty impressive shots in this film, especially for the technology of the time.  I would recommend checking this out if you’re into film history at all. 

This blog is pretty lame-o, but I want to get back to watching the Oscars.  Until next time.  I think Slumdog Millionaire is next on my cue.  Bye for now!

My prediction: Lincoln will win best picture.  Either that, or Argo, or Life of Pi, or Les Miserables, or Silver Linings Playbook.  :)

Double Feature

Well, I dropped off in my blogging for the last week or two.  I didn’t, however, stop watching movies.  Now I have a lot of catching up to do.

In my absence, this year’s Best Picture contenders were finally announced.  I’m in deep doo-doo to say the least.  I’m way behind.  The nominees are:

Argo – Haven’t seen it

Django Unchained – Haven’t seen it

Zero Dark Thirty – Check

Les Miserables – Check

Amour – Haven’t seen it, probably can’t see it (unless I get to Boston)

Lincoln – Check

Beasts of the Southern Wild – Haven’t seen it

Life of Pi – Haven’t seen it

Silver Linings Playbook – Check

I’m at less than 50% currently.

I plan to see Argo and Beasts of the Southern Wild sometime in the next week or so.  I desperately want to see Django, but I still need to schedule that one in.  Amour literally isn’t playing anywhere around here except Boston, and I’m not sure if my level of commitment is that high.  That leaves Life of Pi, which I have avoided because it’s the same situation that kept me from completing the list last year – it’s based on a book, and I haven’t read the book (nor do I have the time to).  I didn’t see War Horse or Hugo last year for the same reason.  I might have to break my own rule and just see it anyway.

I saw Zero Dark Thirty today with my father.  I must admit, I dozed off in the middle somewhere for about 5 minutes.  Normally, I am poking him every two minutes in the theater because he dozes off and starts snoring (although he claims that he is just “relaxed” and snores although he is wide awake with his eyes closed might I add.)  I was a total hypocrite today because it was only noon time, and I was dozing off like an elderly woman out past her bedtime.  It was a looooong movie, and I stayed up really late grading papers last night.  Not a good combo.  Overall, it was a good movie.  I’m not sure it’s Best-Picture-worthy material, though.  No outstanding acting performances, and no outstanding cinematography or artistic directing.  I think maybe the subject matter got it a little further than it should have.  Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty good – but of all the nominees I’ve seen so far, it was my least favorite of the bunch.

That brings me to my other mission.  I have TWO to write about this time, because I’m a procastinator and didn’t write as soon as I finished watching the first one.  Shocker, I know.

Chicago was next on my list.  It won in 2002.  I have AVOIDED watching this movie for several reasons.  The first one is simple and consists of three words:

Catherine Zeta-Jones.

I can’t f-ing stand her.  She annoys the crap out of me and she always has.  Maybe this doesn’t happen to you, because you’re probably normal, but sometimes I just can’t stand someone for now particular reason – they just BUG me.  Another actress that gives me the same feeling is Jeanne Tripplehorn.  Many of you probably don’t even know who the hell that is, but she bugs me on a monumental level, so I can pick her out of any lineup.

As promised, Catherine Zeta-Jones was horrible in this movie.  It made me a little peeved to find out she was the only actress/actor to win an Oscar from this movie for her performance.  I thought Renee Zellweger (how the heck do you spell that anyway) was way better than her, but I suppose I’m hate-biased. 

The second reason I have avoided watching this is because I never ever feel like it.  I didn’t know enough about it, I’ve never seen the musical before, don’t really know the songs, and therefore, just generally was never tempted by it.

To keep this as succinct as possible, I HATED this movie in the beginning, and then slowly but surely started to really like it.  (This is pretty much the case with just about anything in my life.  I always hate stuff and then later realize I love it)  The music was pretty fantastic, and the cinematography, choreography, and staging seemed to be incredibly effective for the storyline.  I would be interested in seeing how the musical is done on stage to be able to make a better comparison.  My favorite scene is when Richard Gere and Renee Zellweger do ventriloquist act.  It’s weird but fantastic at the same time.  I’m surprised, given my fear of dolls and such, that this doesn’t bother me more than it does.  Rob Marshall did an excellent job directing this scene in particular. 

Here’s a link to that particular scene on youtube if you’re interested:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBM82Ju2kJU

I also watched Annie Hall.

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet.

It. Was. Brilliant.

Where has Woody Allen been all my life?

Stylistically, it was amazing.  I love the direct address method he used.  The directing, the acting, the script – all brilliant.

I think I need to hunt down a lot more of his films.  I’ve only ever seen Radio Days, which I really liked.  However, something tells me that Woody Allen is somebody that I will really be able to connect to.  I appreciate his style.  It reminds me of the way I feel when I watch a Wes Anderson movie – how everything is so smartly done, so purposeful, so subtle, and yet so effective.  Every choice seems to speak to me.  I love that in a director. 

Of all the films I’ve watched so far in this thing, I would rate this at the top.  I’ll let you know if anything else can knock it out of first place…

For next time, I will be getting Wings, which is the very first Oscar winner ever!

I promised I wouldn’t give Netflix any more of my money than absolutely necessary, but I may have to back down on that decision and up to the two disc plan.  This waiting around in between movies is for the birds.

Until next time!

Out of Africa

First of all, on an unrelated note to the title of this blog, I saw Lincoln today.  It was fantastic.  Daniel Day Lewis was so good that I forgot it was even him playing the role.  It never felt like Daniel Day Lewis trying to be Lincoln - he just WAS him.  Really well done.

Anyway, back to the task at hand.

Out of Africa.  1985.  Best Picture Winner.

I have never even HEARD of this movie, let alone knew it was an Oscar winner.  But the actors seemed good, so out of all of my 50 something movies, this is the one I got first from Netflix.

Now, when I was about an hour into this movie and wanting to give up I started googling what the other nominees were that year thinking there must be some mistake here.  I haven't seen any of the other nominees, so I can't really make a comparison.  The only one I really know anything about is the Color Purple, and I didn't see that.  The beginning of this movie was DULL. 

I soldiered on, and was pleasantly surprised.  It was looooooooooooong.  Two hours and 40 minutes that felt like at least double that.  I'm pretty sure this movie won because Africa is beautiful, and there really is some great cinematography.  In all honesty, I think it must be hard to get anything BUT beautiful cinematography in Africa.  Current day movies and technology do make you realize how far we've come.  That beautiful cinematography I was just mentioning would sometimes be juxtaposed with some pretty epically bad blue screen material.  However, it was 1985 so I will cut them some slack.

Both Meryl Streep and Robert Redford really helped this movie along.  One interesting thing about Meryl in this movie is that she starts the movie as a "fake" old woman, all wrinkled up with makeup and a shaky voice to narrate the film as she is looking back on her life.  It was pretty wonderful to see young Meryl Streep pretending to be old Meryl Streep especially since now she really IS old Meryl Streep and she looks way better than pretend old Meryl Streep.  Well, I guess he isn't as old as she was pretending to be in the movie, but she's almost 30 years older now, which is quite a chunk of time.

Robert Redford is charming as hell.  Now I know why everybody always talks about him.  He's OLD now, but jesus was he hot.  It's not even so much HOT as charming, like I said before.  He is kind of mesmerizing in a way.  His voice is forever the narrator of A River Runs Through It for me, which is one of my all time favorite movies.  But interestingly enough, his mannerisms in this movie are strikingly similar to Brad Pitt's mannerisms in that very movie (and in life in general I would say.)  They look eerily similar.  In fact, here's a picture:

I don't know if this is the best comparison, but it's good enough for you to get the idea.

Anyway, long story short, I did like the movie overall.  I probably wouldn't watch it over and over, but after lulling me to a sleep a couple of times, the ending truly shocked me.  I didn't see it coming for some reason and I was definitely connected to the story and characters by that point. 

So far, I haven't been blown away yet by either of my first two movies.  I hope this isn't a trend. 

Up next: Chicago.

Million Dollar Baby

So, I planned to start with "Out of Africa" because that's the first movie that I queued up on Netflix.  However, I found a copy of Million Dollar baby laying around (which definitely isn't mine because it's the Full Screen version.  I don't know why anyone ever would buy full screen movies, and I can't even remember who I'm insulting because I can't remember who I borrowed it from) and decided to watch it. 

I can definitely say that this is one movie I have never been excited to watch. I wasn't that crazy about the idea of the film in general, the fact that it's about boxing, and the fact that the ending was ruined for me long ago, which I HATE.  My dad would say that it doesn't matter if you know the ending, because you don't know the path that will be taken to get there.  However, I think knowing the ending taints your entire experience as a viewer and affects your outlook, impressions, thoughts, and observations along the way - how could it not?  I like to be a blank slate going into a movie.

So, now that I've finally finished watching it, I'll say this: I think I'm supposed to love this movie a lot more than I did. 

SPOILER ALERT - by the way, I think it goes without saying, that I am going to be talking about these movies and probably ruining things for you if you haven't seen them.  So don't read this if you don't want anything ruined.

There are a few things that definitely may have contributed to my lack luster impression, such as the fact that I already knew she died in the end, the fact that I watched it in four separate chunks because I kept falling asleep or having to do other things, and the fact that boxing could be my least favorite sport of all time.  However, I did really love The Fighter, so maybe that's not a valid point. 

I thought Hilary Swank did a great job, but I'm pretty sure Clint Eastwood must play the same character in every movie.  I guess I'm not really in a position to say that, seeing as how my experience with him is fairly limited - ok, extremely limited AKA I've only ever seen him in Gran Torino (which I loved.)  At least I think I've only seen him in these two movies.  I'm not really a Western sort of gal (I'm kind of dreading Unforgiven.)  He's definitely got the grouchy old man who warms up and whose personality comes alive by the end of the movie thing down.

There was just about no shot in the movie that didn't have dark, hard, exaggerated shadows.  Most of the time the characters' faces would be half light and half shadow.  I think my ability to judge the cinematography was definitely inhibited by the piss poor quality of the DVD I watched, which was automatically stretched out and horrible due to its full-screenness.  I will say, that I think Clint Eastwood may be a better director than actor at this point.

I don't really understand how his character got away with what he did at the end.  It seems like someone would have noticed and there would have been some repercussions.

The story was good and definitely affected me emotionally, but man is it depressing.  This really reinforces the fact that being a quadriplegic is just about one of the worst things in the world.  I can't even imagine it.  It's so sad and depressing and tragic.

So anyway, I'm not really a film critic, but those are my initial thoughts.  One best picture winner down, and I can't remember how many more to go...50 something.  Out of Africa came today in the mail, so that's coming up next.   I wonder how long it will take me to do this?  Not long at this rate!

You won't believe it, Dad.....

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But I'm doing a blog post.

And I have revamped my site a little bit – you’ll understand why in a minute.

Today, while I was sitting in the theater waiting for Anna Karenina (which SUCKED by the way) to start, I was looking at Oscar nominees.  For the last couple of years I have tried to watch all the nominees for Best Picture, because I like the challenge, and I like movies.  I thought I successfully did this two years in a row, but I realized I missed seeing two of the nominees last year (Hugo and War Horse).  So I guess, technically, I've only ever done this once successfully, but I'm trying to make it a thing - so just cut me some slack.

This year, the top contenders seem to be:

Lincoln

Les Miserables

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

Argo

and other possibilities:

Life of Pi

Django Unchained

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Moonrise Kingdom

The Master

Of the top 5, I've only seen 2 at this point.

Of the top 10, I've only seen 3.

Yikes.  I have until February though - it can be done.

Anyway, back to the story I originally intended to tell, which I haven't even started telling yet.  Andrea and I were looking at the list of movies that have won Best Picture throughout the years, and I realized that there are TONS I haven't seen.  So, I'm going to switch my Netflix subscription from streaming for awhile (not because I'm too cheap to pay the 7.99 additional fee to add the discs, but because I'm not going to give Netflix the satisfaction of getting my extra money after what they did when they changed their plans) and watch the Best Picture winners I haven't seen.

And there are A LOT I haven't seen.

Which reminded me of the blog/movie Julie and Julia.

Except this will be "Oscar and Tonya: One girl's mission to watch a lot of Best Picture winners for no other reason than to say she saw them all"  Good title...(ha! a reference to an Oscar winner right out of the gates! amazing)  This would probably be much catchier if my name was Olive or Oscarina or something like that, but this isn't Hollywood, so it will have to do.

Here is a link to the Academy's web page for all the Best Picture winners in case you care:

http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/best-pictures.html

Out of the 84 Best Picture Winners, I have seen a total of 29.  This leaves a total of 55 movies for me to watch (along with all my current nominees for this year and next.)  This could get expensive…I haven’t checked into how many of these are available through Netflix. 

The Best Picture winners I have seen so far are:

2011 – The Artist

2010 – The King’s Speech

2007 – No Country for Old Men

2006 – The Departed

2005 – Crash

2001 – A Beautiful Mind

2000 – Gladiator

1999 – American Beauty

1998 – Shakespeare in Love

1997 – Titanic

1995 – Braveheart

1994 – Forrest Gump

1993 – Schindler’s List

1991 – The Silence of the Lambs

1990 – Dances with Wolves

1989 – Driving Miss Daisy

1988 – Rain Main

1987 – The Last Emperor

1986 – Platoon

1984 – Amadeus

1980 – Ordinary People

1978 – The Deer Hunter

1965 – The Sound of Music

1961 – West Side Story

1957 – The Bridge on the River Kwai

1943 – Casablanca

1939 – Gone With the Wind

1935  - Mutiny on the Bounty

1931/1932 – Grand Hotel

Now, I also think I may have seen Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and All Quiet on the Western Front (1929/30), but I can’t say it definitively, so I won’t count them. 

I don’t think I’ll go in any particular order, especially since if I save all the ones from the 20’s and 30’s for last, I’m likely to go broke if they aren’t on Netflix.  Actually, I take that back – they are pretty much all on there.  Bonus.

For some reason, Out of Africa (1985) and Annie Hall (1977) are jumping out at me as the ones I should get first.  So my next post will be about one of those.

I watch a lot of movies.  I figure having a little purpose for myself will make me feel like I’m getting something accomplished :)

Uncle Buddy

Sometimes I flip through the notebook that I keep for writing with my kids when I give them a prompt, and realize that I write a lot of things that I forget that I wrote. I have a lot of beginnings, and a lot of unfinished thoughts. I found one today that hit me so hard I nearly burst into tears, which is the same sort of way I felt on the day I started this. It was unfinished, because I ran out of time, but I think it's a thought I need to finish.

The assignment I gave my kids that day was to choose one line from a random autobiography quickwrite we had done, and do some more writing about that single line. My single line was:

"My uncle died of cancer and our family will never be the same without his laugh"

This is the rest:

I miss you.

It startles me how much sometimes. I can go for long stretches of forgetting, well, not forgetting but of being distracted by life. I will never totally forget, although I guess that we have a way of blocking out things that hurt too much.

When I saw Gigi wish you a happy 65th birthday, or would-be birthday, on facebook, I felt like I stopped, like my heart stopped, froze, remembered the excruciating truth of your gone-ness. Time slowed to a painful drip, and I was unable to move. Sometimes a moment hits you hard, like the cliched punch in your gut. Memory, strong and sudden, has a way of opening up the scars on your heart without mercy, like the wounds are fresh instead of slowly scabbed over and finally bearable.

65? I can't picture you that old, can't believe that would-be number implies all those years without you have gone by. Your laugh filled up a room, rooms that seem empty now without you.

Our family isn't and wasn't the kissing, hugging, I love you sort of bunch. But, I loved you. I love you still, and I would plant the biggest kiss on your prickly cheek if I had the chance to now.

I visit your grave sometimes, which I hope you know, because I can't stand the thought of something as wonderful as you ceasing to exist. I cling to the thought that you are still with us, on some other plane, some realm my brain can't find a way to process or connect to - yet. My heart, and my gut force me to believe you are not gone even though it is so painfully true that our lives will never be the same without you.

On Brandon and Cheryl's wedding day, I cried in the church. Not because I was happy, which I was, but because your memory washed over me like a flood and I felt the sadness of missing you hanging so heavy in the rafters that I couldn't breathe. You should have been there. I hope you were there, but I couldn't help but mourn your physical absence on your son's big day. I know you would have been gushing and glowing, just like Aunt Regina. I sure would have loved to see you strolling her down the aisle, and I would have given anything to see you filling in the gap of that first pew where you absence was felt by many.

I miss you. It startles me how much sometimes, but I really don't know how to stop these moments as they come, the ones that jar me every time with their intensity, the ones that make me wonder how your wife, your children must feel if I feel like this. I guess I never will be able to stop them, and that's ok because remembering you is all that I have now. "Well, isn't that something?"

I miss you.

apropos

Penny Kittle is a teacher at Kennett High School, and I took one of her seminars last year. I think she is fantastic. I found this question/answer in some of her materials, and it couldn't be more perfect.

Q. How do you work with an administrator who thinks the only important things in writing are grammar, punctuation, and spelling?
A. I remember a middle school principal I had years ago. She was a smart woman, but when I started teaching seventh grade she gave me a grammar textbook as curriculum. I took it home that night and went back the next morning with a sticky note of ques- tions. I asked her, “What’s a gerund and when was the last time you used one? Do you know what an appositive does in a sentence?” She laughed and admitted she had no idea. We then talked about what students at the school needed to learn, and she let me go on with my work. I made a point to show her how I taught and assessed mechanics in class and to show her the progress students were making with the writing workshop approach.

Seemed fairly relevant to my life right now, and it's nice to be reminded that there are so many people out there that "get it."

Today was my first day with the kids in Alton. Overwhelming but great at the same time. My day started with the principal seeking me out, checking in with me, making sure I didn't have any questions or needs, and wishing me a great first day. I told her I wasn't used to that. She smiled and told told me I should get used to it. I think I will :) I also couldn't ask for better teammates who have gone above and beyond to make sure I am on board and not floundering.

Tonight I'm thinking about my former co-workers from Strafford, who I love so much, and hoping that their first day is fantastic tomorrow. I'm sad that I won't be seeing all those familiar faces this year, and returning to all those kids that I love, but I'm excited for new opportunities and experiences at the same time.

I have no closing tonight, so I guess that's all for now! Abrupt, but true.