It's a Wrap! Happy Oscar Viewing!

I'm so excited!  It's finally Oscar day. My month and a half of attempting to watch every nominee in every category has come to a close. I'll probably begin watching useless coverage starting at noon today on E! Nothing ever happens other than entertainment reporters have plenty of time to fill, in which they can embarrass themselves.

I saw everything available to me this year, which was no small piece of work.  What I missed: The Missing Picture (aptly named), Broken Circle Breakdown, Ernest & Celestine, and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. (I sort of wish that was Ernest & Celestine & Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.)

As a wrap up, here is my favorite choice in each category:

Best Picture: This is the hardest category.  My favorite is Nebraska, (with big props to American Hustle, 12 Years A Slave, and Gravity)

Actor: Bruce Dern (unless he's really living in a constant fog, in which case, I'm so sorry to hear that, Laura. And then I'll pick Matthew McConaughey.

Actress: Cate Blanchett (for amazing range in a terrible movie)

Supporting Actor: Jared Leto (for making me forget you were Jordan Catalano, if only for a little while.)

Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o (Why were others nominated?)

Animated Feature: Frozen (I'll try not to cry tonight when Idina Menzel sings Let It Go, but I can't promise anything.)

Cinematography: Inside Llewyn Davis (for looking like memories)

Costume Design: The Great Gatsby (Did you see how many outfits they all had?)

Directing: Alfonso Cuaron (for integrating Visual Effects into a compelling story)

Documentary Feature: Dirty Wars (for making me less proud of my president)

Documentary Short Subject: Cave Digger (for being a fascinating story with gorgeous visuals: a perfect documentary topic!  Although, I have to say, the title character from The Lady in Number 6  won't leave me and might just be changing my life and I'm pretty sure, THAT is why I love movies.)

Film Editing: Gravity - Alfonso Cuaron and Mark Sanger (And please note that it is criminal to leave Thelma Schoonmaker out of this category.)

Foreign Language Film: The Great Beauty (my favorite Nominee this year!)

Make Up and Hair Styling: Dallas Buyers Club (by process of elimination)

Music: Gravity (I honestly don't remember the music and that means it was used sparingly.)

Song: Ordinary Love (Duh!  Have you met me?  It's U2!)

Production Design: Gravity (It can't always go to the The Great Gatsby-type movies)

Short Film, Animated: Get A Horse! (for clever use of old and new techniques)

Short Film, Live: Do I Have To Take Care of Everything? (for being so funny!)

Sound Editing: Lone Survivor (for gun shots)

Sound Mixing: Gravity (for knowing when to be quiet and when not to)

Visual Effects: Gravity (obviously)

Writing, Adapted: 12 Years A Slave (for making 12 years go by quicker for us than it did for Solomon)

Writing, Original: Nebraska (for giving you the impression that nobody wrote it)

I didn't have a chance to review every single film this year, so I will complete my reviews in one run-on sentence now. The Croods was funnier than I thought it would be, Frozen is the best movie in the world if you have two daughters, Despicable Me 2 is so, so wonderful, The Wind Rises was beautiful to look at for about twenty minutes and then boring, The Grandmaster was also beautiful to look at for about twenty minutes and then boring, I still can't believe I had to sit through Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa and The Lone Ranger was even worse than Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, Iron Man Three's fight scenes using the multiple ejecting Iron Man suits totally captivated me, Star Trek: Into Darkness was really enjoyable because I love the new emotional Spock even though I can't believe Star Trek fans would stand for that, The Book Thief was pretty good but I bet the book was better, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was such a better movie that that first one and I always like a world where Hobbits and Elves are working together, Lone Survivor was a well structured story with strong performances and it's not really my thing, All is Lost was interesting, but hard to watch a movie with no dialogue so I ended up having to talk to the screen the whole time to fill the void which, I guess it was just lucky I watched it at home and Before Midnight was kind of great because it resembled my real life so much and kind of awful because it resembled my real life so much, when Julie Delpy says that passionate women who have children all head the way of Sylvia Plath, I was like, "Oh snap! Did she say that out loud? I don't think we're supposed to talk about that," but I should stop because maybe I am revealing too much about myself now. Leave a comment if you read this whole thing, I want to know who knows too much. See you next January!

Short Reviews

Animated Reviews by guest reviewer, Viviana

Feral - What was it about?

Get A Horse! - It was really funny.  I recommend it.

Mr. Hublot - It was ok, but I wouldn't say it was the best.

Possessions - It was really cool. I liked that he helped and they gave him gifts he made for them.

Room on the Broom - I really loved it. It was one of the best short films because it had funny characters and also I liked how the animals all worked together to help the witch.



Live  Reviews by Autumn

Aquel No Era Yo - This one felt unnecessarily brutal.

Avant Que De Tout Perdre - Was a great little study in suspense.  It could have you used one shot of summation.

Helium - Poured it on a bit too thick.

Ptaako Mun Kaiki Hoitaa -So fun! It's about my life.

The Voorman Problem - Star power mixed with plot holes.



Short Doc Reviews by Autumn
These films were a powerful punch and have stayed with me more than any of the feature films I have seen this year.

Cave Digger - Stunning! Great story, great visuals.

Facing Fear - Powerful story of healing, forgiving and moving forward.

Karama Has No walls - My least favorite.  Too similar to The Square, a long doc.

The Lady in Number 6 - Mind Blown!  Three old ladies telling me thy are grateful for the experience of being Jewish, in camps in the Holocaust has threatened to disrupt my whole world view.

Prison Terminal - Humanity can be beautiful and compassionate in the craziest of circumstances. How many films leave you with that?

12 Years of Philomena in Osage County this August

There were two shots in 12 Years A Slave that held for an uncomfortably extended length of time.  I dig that.  I like what Steve McQueen was putting me through as an audience member.  I just wish he would have done it more.  It seems as if he did not want to call attention to the Director's point of view, but when he made an exception, the film was more powerful.  Lupita Nyong'o was so astonishingly good when she was on screen that I can't figure out why they even nominated other actresses.  There were other strong performances as well.  And then every once in a while a minor character would enter the world and just fall short.  I wanted more consistency from Steve McQueen!  I also took issue with Brad Pitt in the role of Bass.  It was too small of a role for Brad Pitt to get lost in and you couldn't stop thinking about the fact that a megastar just showed up in the middle of someone telling you an unbelievably painful story.  Nitpicking aside, 12 Years has the Oscar approved level of importance and was a very moving and effective film.  It would not bother me if this won.

Philomena was an interesting story.  The character banter was fun.  All in all it seemed well made but not quite Oscar level for reasons I can't easily put my finger on. I did have to watch it in two sittings weeks apart so I know that didn't help my viewing of it at all. I was called away from the first screening for a sick kid at school and I sneaked into the second screening after watching something else at an unnamed movie theatre. I think I may have missed a few minutes of the middle of the film, so it really isn't fair at all for me to complain about the minimal impact the film had for me.

August: Osage County had two things going for it. The first is that I had three good friends basically warn me off of it entirely.  So my expectations were nice and low.  Secondly, I have a degree in Theatre Arts so I have sat through an insufferable amount of these plays about the tortuous small town family reunion and NONE of them had acting as good as this!  So I ended up enjoying something that may not have held much interest for me otherwise. I am totally with you and your odd choice Meryl Streep! I did not think you overacted a bit. Julia, I've never seen you so good, although my mom thinks that wasn't acting, it's just who you are, which might explain a lot.  Sam Shepard?  More of you next time, please! Juliette Lewis, you came up with a different character for this movie and she was heartbreaking. The telling of the story was problematic as every scene shouted, "Stage play!" but thank goodness the movie version cut out over an hour of the stage script because as much as I enjoy people verbally abusing one another, I could not have taken much more.

Telling True Stories

Let's talk about poetic license for a bit.

Saving Mr. Banks really bugged me.  It's resolution was too forced and illogical; too neat and too perfect.  Some would say it was too "Disney" and that seems apt.  I went into this film quite sure that P. L. Travers was not a fan of Disney and that she was never entirely pleased with the studio's adaptation of her classic children's book, Mary Poppins.  I wondered how they would address this.  The answer is they didn't, or rather they handled it disingenuously. Mrs. Travers objections were merely the stodgy old obstacle that could be overcome with stubborn charm and dancing.

So the movie contained character arcs and pivotal scenes that were patently false, and in my opinion, that makes them far less emotionally satisfying.  I was rolling my eyes so hard at this movie that I began to fear that I had simply become cynical and perhaps they were telling me the whimsical truth and I just wouldn't accept it. Nope, that wasn't it. A little research after my screening reveled that every major plot point in the film was fabricated. I find this pointless. If you want to write an original story for me to enjoy, I am all in. If a real life event is worth telling, go for it. If you have to completely re-invent a true story in order to make a hero out of the "father" of your huge, maniacal, mega-entertainment corporation, just stop it!

I should note that the performances were solid and the music was an interesting re-working of Mary Poppins themes. So that's that.

Now let's move on to how much I enjoyed Dallas Buyers Club.  Here we have a film that is a dramatization of how HIV/AIDS patients took control of their own treatment, out of necessity, and how it helped prolong lives and eventually change federal laws.  The acting was amazing, of course.  Much has been made of Jared Leto's transformation in this film.  Part of me was a little worried that he was being given acting credit for being a hunky rock star who was willing to lose a little weight and dress like a woman.  That was not the case.  Leto very much disappeared into this role and became someone of his own devising.  Mattheew McConnaughey also puts in a powerful performance.  The story was paced well, took me on a journey and moved me.

And was the story true and accurately related?  I don’t care. I know they combined characters and filled in the blanks with their imagination.  But they gave me a reliable presentation of the culture of the “Buyers Club” and how it came to be.  That is lot different than fibbing about well known people and a lot easier for me to admire.

Finally, Something Interesting!

The Foreign film category has provided two of the most interesting flicks I have watched so far this season.

The Hunt, from Denmark, is the story of a man accused of inappropriate behavior with a preschool child and how these allegations impact him, the victim, and the entire community.  This story was laid out neatly, well-acted and its contained drama and suspense gave the viewer lots of opportunities to ponder, "What would I do, if..."  Also, when the characters behaved stupidly, it was a relief to realize that America does not have a monopoly on boorish behavior!

The Great Beauty, from Italy, is about a man side-tracked from his writing career by the decadent "high life" of Rome.  From the bacchanalian rooftop parties to the quiet, manicured convent gardens, this film provides the contrasting textures and rhythms of life in Rome. You will pine for this lifestyle in one moment and revile it the next, scoffing at life's hypocrisies and then mourning its fragility.  I was thoroughly seduced by this film making; entertained, inspired and swept away.

I wish I could get a shot at the other Foreign nominees this year but they often don't get a release date until after the Oscars have aired.

A couple for the Costumers...

I saw The Great Gatsby a long time ago.  I remember loving the look of it and the feel of the story-telling.  I remember not being at all invested in the lives of these crazy, rich jerks and I was totally ok with that.  I sat on the outside watching them live their sort of petty dramas and wondering what on earth was wrong with them?  If any two people in that story had simply been open and honest with each other they might have gotten somewhere, but instead you watched fairly dishonorable people stoically suffer in order to defend their imaginary "honor".  Whatever, rich dudes!  Mo' money, mo' problems, I guess!  But they did look great doing it!

The Invisible Woman was a fine story about Charles Dickens and his secret lover.  However, I was terribly confused by the timeline of this movie because they forgot to ever age Felicity Jones.  The whole movie takes place in flashbacks and she visibly doesn't age more than five years throughout. Maybe she is allergic to make-up or something.  In the last few minutes of the film I realized it should have taken place over a couple of decades at least.  Oh, well, the costumes were fine and I was glad I saw it.

I'm viewing as fast as I can!

This Oscar gluttony is a delicate dance! 

-Two times this week I have managed to hit the final showing of a nominated film within a 40 mile radius of home. 

-I have seen half of Philomena (after receiving a text that my daughter was feeling ill) and must somehow see the second half before it gets pushed out by more current films.

-There remains NO info on when or where the Oscar Nominated Short Films will be screening.  My Bay Area friends have already had a shot at them, but Southern California? Nope.

-And I have been late to pick up my children at school twice because of movies running later than I had planned (One theatre started the film twenty minutes late!  What???)

That being said, I am three rentals and four screenings away from meeting my goal (as well as I can, anyway.)

I just didn't want any of you to labor under the delusion that my charmed and glamorous life is effortless.  Oh no, people, being this crazy takes work!

Take Your Zoloft Before You Watch the Docs!

Cutie and The Boxer - The depressing tale of how marriage crushes a woman's dreams and creativity while leaving her jackass husband to do whatever he wishes with his life.  Well made, with a touch of hope thrown in.

The Square - The depressing tale of the death and destruction that accompanied the Egyptian Revolution and how even though people's hopes and ideals inspire them to great acts, in the end it doesn't really change much.  Well made, inspiring and hopeless.

Dirty Wars - The depressing tale of the completely out of control murder machine that is the U.S. drone program and how we are ensuring the world will have another generation of anti-western terrorists.  Well made, eye-opening and soul-crushing.

20 Feet From Stardom - The depressing tale of how the back up singers of motown defined a style of music and got chewed up and spit out by the system.  Actually, this movie couldn't figure out if it wanted us to be sad for the plight of back up singers, or happy that they have paying jobs that fit their talents.  This one had a wandering and sometimes contradictory point of view and was the least well-made of the bunch.

Monsters Making Movies

The Act of Killing - This is a documentary about mass murderers from Indonesia reminiscing about their part in killing over a million communists and Chinese people in the 1960s.  And THEN they start making movies to reenact and sometimes glorify the work they did for their barbaric government.  I could only watch this film in about ten minute increments.  For a while I was riveted by the bizarre car-wreck nature of it and then I just felt tired, depressed and unsure why we were giving these monsters a platform to express themselves instead of a fitting jail sentence.

Blue Jasmine - I watched this film after Ronan Farrow had his say on Twitter during the Golden Globes but before the Open Letter from Dylan Farrow was published.  This is nominated for Original Screenplay which is insane because nothing much happens in the film other than flashbacks. After a couple of flashbacks we sort of get the picture of what happened and why the characters are where they are today but that doesn't stop us from a dozen more flashbacks that continue to not add very much to the here and now.  There are no real character arcs and it is hard to care very much about what is going on in the lives of these people. At first I was riveted by the performance of Cate Blanchett which ranges effortlessly from comedic to tragic and back again and then I just felt tired, depressed and unsure why we were giving this monster a platform to express himself instead of a fitting jail sentence.

[P.S.  Yes, I just loosely equated Woody Allen with mass murderers.  There IS a difference but I wouldn't want to have dinner with either one of them.  And perhaps what happened to Dylan Farrow hasn't been proven in a court of law but I'm willing to follow my gut on this one and just wait for someone to prove me wrong.]

Gravity and Her

Gravity had one heck of a trailer.  Watching that moment of, "Holy crap, my chubby-gloved fingers had better grip this small piece of metal or else I will drift into space and slowly suffocate in utter emptiness", is pretty amazing.  That is the visualization of a small scale goal with the ultimate of consequences; high drama!  So what do you do next?

Well, more of the same, plus back story, plus some questionable science and a little Clooney charm to hold it all together.  I think Sandra Bullock was good but not great in a tough role.  Sometimes she needed to be the "everyman" (everywoman?) and get out of the way so we could picture ourselves in space and freak out on her behalf.  Other times, she needed to focus on her journey and be damn good at it because we had nothing else to fall back on.  I think in service of goal number one, her character ended up being slightly too much of a blank slate and lacked a bit of personality.  As for goal number two, I enjoyed the journey of woman lost in life, as well as in space, despite its sometimes almost hokey symbolism of her rebirth.  Clooney was almost too charming, but what else is new?  A totally sold film but surely its not the best of the year?

Her was a quirky, good time.  (I like to say that because Spike Jonze hates that word!)  I thought it was far funnier than the other nine people in the theatre that day.  (There is a scene of sexy-talk over a black screen that I am very hopeful it is the official Oscar clip!) I found it pretty absurdly amusing the way Joaquin Phoenix carries on with his phone, but maybe I was supposed to see this as sweet, instead?  No matter, I found sweetenss in the final resolution of the film, the idea that we write ourselves into the programming of the people with whom we interact and share love.  And I can't stop telling people about the awesome Mom-based video game that Amy Adams' character is designing.  How boring is the future going to be, anyway?  All in all, Her was a satisfying amusement but not a Best Picture.

Disappointment and Delight

When I saw the trailer for Captain Phillips, I knew I was supposed to want to see it.  I knew it was going to be highly dramatic with world class acting and still, I did not much want to  see it.  I saw it this weekend  and I now know why that was the case.  I knew going in that the good Captain Phillips' ship would be taken and eventually some large, sea-faring vessel would arrive with big guns and rescue him.  The middle part was not presented in such a way that I cared much about how it all went down.  The final half hour of the film was tight, suspenseful and enjoyable but honestly, the film had so far lost me by that point that I was just kind of mad at the movie's director, Paul Greengrass for waiting so long to make it interesting. 


Nebraska is real without being boring.  These are characters that you know or have known, maybe your family or neighbors.  They manage to be familiar and yet still surprise you from time to time.  Nebraska is funny without trying too hard.  There is humor even in the more mundane, disappointing, and sad aspects of life.  This movie finds those moments with honesty and without going over the top.  It's a small movie with heart and personality and it may just end up being my favorite of the Best Picture Nominees.

(I swear this has nothing to do with Peyton Manning shouting Omaha in all of my dreams.  They didn't even visit that city in the movie!)

The American Wolf of Wall Street Hustle

Full disclosure: I did not like the 80'S. I didn't like the fashion, the music, and most especially the movies.  I didn't like watching all the excess of drugs, parties, sex and capitalism. So, The Wolf of Wall Street was difficult for me to get into.  It was a couple hours of me thinking, "Not these assholes, again!"  I kept wondering if everyone watching felt that way or if this was specific to my allergy to the '80s.  I appreciated that Martin Scorcese was not glorifying the actions of these self-destructive greed-whores, but even so, there were still a lot of lines of cocaine on and in the bodies of prostitutes.  Boring!

It took a few days before I found myself thinking back fondly on scenes from the film, and I realized I had enjoyed the film, despite my allergies.  The acting was great, the style of story-telling was as bare and brazen as ever, the cleverness of The Wolf was echoed in the directing in lovely ways.  Scorcese's film-making always has "punch".  I have to love that.

Coincidentally, somehow the billboards for American Hustle called to mind a Scorcese film.  All that 1970's hair work seemed to promise in your face film-making.  I was waiting edgy choices and cinematic style to spare. I forgot that this is not Russell's game. I felt the first act of the movie was so slow!  I kept waiting for something to really get cooking.  I had to remember to have patience because sometimes a good story takes time.  It was important for me to be invested in the relationship between Amy Adams and Christian Bale or else I would never know how much they were risking later in the film.

So here are two films with bold, flawed characters who are trying and failing, at life and success and comb-overs.  In the Wolf of Wall Street, there is nary a soul with redeeming qualities.  In American Hustle the characters manage to alternately earn my scorn and empathy.  If I have to choose, I'll go with the film that allows me to like its characters, even if it is in spite of myself.  The '70s win!

Two for Cinematography: Inside Llewyn Davis and Prisoners

I'm okay with a melancholy film as long as it hits a certain threshold of poignancy. If it resonates with me or affirms some basic tenet I hold true, then I don't need a plot-heavy or fast-paced film..  Unfortuantely, Inside Llewyn Davis did not resonate with me, but I bet it did with some of its viewers. I enjoyed it fine while watching it but as soon as it had finished I experienced buyer's remorse.  Maybe I should have seen something else? Surely there was some laundry at home that I should have been working on?

That said, the cinematography was the talent in question and it was beautiful.  So dreamy, hazy and muted, like old memories, kind of sad because the color was going out of them, but also more beautiful because of that aging process. (As a side note, too bad there is no Oscar for animal actors because two cats were great in this film!)


On the other hand, the look of Prisoners seemed so run of the mill to me, I could not figure out why it got nominated in this category.  Despite my expensive film school education, I still know very little about how to work a camera, so I am completely open to someone explaining to me why this film was a work of genius. I do recall one fabulous shot of an eye barely lit by a shaft of light.  Super cool shot, but is it enough for an Oscar?

As for the rest of the film, I had a devil of a time staying awake, which was probably not the fault of the film.  I thought I would be an emotional wreck for the plot line of two young girls being kidnapped, but thankfully the film makers did not pull those strings.  Instead the focus was logical, tactical, detached.  I liked the creepy, off characters and the question, "What does it take to make a monster?"

Nominees are coming to tooown...

Listen up film buffs, fans, snobs and hopeless escapists!  Oscar nominations are announced at 4am tomorrow morning!  I've got my Netflix cue hanging by the fire in anxious anticipation of jolly old St. Oscar stuffing it to the brim with cinematic delights! 

I've even set my alarm so I can be the first to hear the good news...Just kidding!  Did you really think I would get up early for that?  Nah, the same nominee information will be available to me whether I deprive myself of sleep or not, so why bother?  But I am excited...super-excited!

I've been thinking about my favorite movie moments from 2013.  They are kind of scattered and sparse.  My kids aren't quite ready to accompany me to such family fare as Blue is the Warmest Color, so for now, movies remain catch-as-catch-can.  Which is pretty much why I partake in yearly Oscar gluttony of heroically obsessive proportions.  I will attempt to watch all of the films nominated for Oscars.  In ANY category.  I got pretty close last year.  There are always a few foreign films that are completely unattainable (without Academy screeners, that is) but I will not be deterred.

So while I wait for the Oscar gods to determine my fate, here are my top three (or so) movie moments of 2013.

1. Sound Design in World War Z.  I read the internet from time to time, so I am aware that everyone hates this movie.  It was too much, too little and too different from the book.  I didn't know anything about it going in and I thoroughly enjoyed myself at this film.  What notched it up from a good time at the movies to a great time at the movies was sound design.  Sound was used as a plot device, good use was made of all the speakers in the theatre, and silence was used to perfection. 

2. Acting in The Heat.  Nope. I'm not joking.  We all know that Melissa McCarthy is awesome because she commits to her comedy.  In The Heat, she committed to her character and the plot as much if not more so.  The choices she made in that film were so magical I didn't even know what to do with myself.  It's completely true that I was at least a little inebriated when I saw the film, but I'll stand by it!  She is an amazing talent!

3. Visual Effects in Gravity.  Well, at least on this one the Academy is likely to agree with me.  I must have thought three times during the film, "This movie wasn't even possible five years ago."  And then the Visual Effects did my favorite thing ever - they disappeared beneath the plot.

4. Honorable Mention to Frozen.  Disney's new take on True Love made me cry like John Boehner.  I seriously need to go into a sensory deprivation tank and sing Let it Go over and over again until I can hear it without weeping.  Or future jaunts to Disneyland with my kids are going to get really embarrassing, really quickly.

Now get some sleep!  The madness begins tomorrow!