<p>I thought Meryl Streep was wonderful…the movie stank. Viola Davis was wonderful. Moneyball…seriously? Underrated movie: Extremely Loud…whatever the title (not a good start when we keep referring to it as the Tom Hanks movie)…Max von Sydow was great. Liked Gary Oldman for Tinker, etc. Script not involving…but he gave a good performance. </p>
<p>The David Niven comment was scripted.</p>
<p>Mu favorite acceptance speech? My best friend’s father won…he thanked his grandchildren…forgot his daughter. Next time: remembered his daughter, forgot his wife. Who says winning isn’t stressful?</p>
<p>I liked the Cuba gooding speech and he was so excited! Everytime I see him I think of that. Also when a native american picked up the award, I believe for marlon Brando. I want Melissa McCarthy to win for best supporting. Did you know it was her husband who played tha air marshall?
And Cher’s oufit?</p>
<p>Of the films nominated that I’ve seen, there seems to be a theme of downer/seriousness to them all: The Artist, Hugo, The Help, War Horse, The Descendants. Have not see the others, but would like to.</p>
<p>The Help: Read the book first, so the movie was disappointing.</p>
<p>War Horse: Disney movie combined with Saving Private Ryan. Who does this movie appeal to?</p>
<p>Hugo: Huh? What was the story again?</p>
<p>The Artist: Unique, but a downer until the final scene. Can’t get Dujardin’s sexy voice out of my mind. That is what clinched it.</p>
<p>The Descendents: This was my favorite. Don’t generally like George Clooney, but this movie actually had a very interesting story, with twists and turns that came around. which is what I crave in movies. The original music was also fantastic.</p>
<p>Best writing (by far, of what I saw) was Margin Call.</p>
<p>Moneyball was good, but the only reason I think it held together for more than two hours was Brad Pitt. Enjoyed Midnight in Paris, but it was a real lightweight.</p>
<p>Of the ones I’ve seen, here are my thoughts:</p>
<p>Margin Call was wonderful. Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons were superb.</p>
<p>The Help was so cliched it was painful, but Viola Davis was excellent.</p>
<p>Hugo was sweet, as was Midnight in Paris. Tree of Life was gorgeously filmed but inscrutable, and Bridesmaids was moronic - a Judd Apatow movie with women substituted for men.</p>
<p>Gary Oldman was wonderful in Tinker, Tailor, but unless you had read the book or seen the BBC series you’d be really confused by the plot.</p>
<p>Not nominated, but has anyone seen Melancholia? I can’t quite decide what to make of it.</p>
<p>I saw it and had the same reaction, Booklady. It’s a hard movie to forget about. I’m sorry that Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourgh were overlooked for acting nominations. I even hoped for a nomination for Kiefer Sutherland because I’ve always liked his work and I think he was excellent in Melancholia, in a very different role for him.</p>
<p>Dunst received the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for it, so I hoped she’d be in the running. Weird fact about Lars von Trier, who has a rep for liking to torture the women in his films - at least 4 of his leading ladies have won the best actress prize at Cannes (Emily Watson, Bjork, Gainsbourgh for a film I’m NEVER gonna see, and Dunst). None of those performances got an Oscar, though.</p>
<p>frazzled, I agree with you about the performances. I was truly mesmerized by them. I’ve seen only one other Lars von Trier film, Breaking the Waves, and had much the same reaction as I did to Melancholia, a combination of “wow, this is so powerful” and “what the heck is he trying to say?”</p>
<p>D1 is in town for a visit and to shop for clothes to wear at her grad school interviews. She and I are going to go see The Artist together tonight (DH had no interest in going). Can’t wait.</p>
<p>Saw The Artist last night - WOW! What creativity to even think of such an idea and how to put it all together.</p>
<p>An aside:
As a sign of how our times have changed, we were walking out of the theater en masse when people began looking at their cell phones, saying, “Wow. Whitney Houston died.” People were in the lobby of the theater doing the same. This was about 8pm CST. Do people have alarms on their phones which go off when big news hits?</p>
<p>Switching over to the Foreign Films nomination: I wish more of the nominated films were in release before the awards. We saw “In Darkness” this weekend, the Polish entry, based on the true story of a Polish sewer worker who hid a small group of Jews in Lvov’s sewers during WWII. It was excellent, as was “A Separation”, the Iranian entry. That’s it! The other three nominated films aren’t out yet.</p>
<p>I really end up liking the films that are nominated for screenplay awards. Which means we should go see “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “The Ides of March”.</p>
<p>I get CNN breaking news emails. I was checking my emails at a party Saturday night because I was expecting one from a family member and saw it. Just at that very moment, the host of the party said, “Did you all hear who died?” I said “Whitney Houston died!” She said “no” and then said an acquaintance of hers died. There was a bit of weird confusion after that. “Why did you guess Whitney Houston?” “I wasn’t guessing” “But you said she died” “She did” “Who died?” “Whitney Houston” “No, Jenn’s friend died.” “They both died.” I don’t think I’ll read CNN Breaking News at a party again.</p>