Wednesday, January 15, 2014

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!

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