OSCARS!

     Let's talk about the Oscars.  I am so excited that I got an app on my phone entitled, The Oscar Experience.  Yikes.  I'm a major geek.  I do love movies though.  So sue me.  I have a goal to see all the best picture nominees.  I have two left.  I have a good feeling about being able to see them in time.  So Django Unchained.  Can we all agree that this is Jamie Foxx's best role to date?  I've never liked him more.  As for his costars, they all seemed as though they were having the most fun time.  Leonardo was a completely original and superb villain.  One of my favorite things about Quentin Tarantino is that all his characters (including his villains) are so stinkin' likeable.  They are charming and eccentric in a good way.  Christoph Waltz was an equally transcendent villian (Inglourious Basterds) as he was the good Dr. King Schultz.  He just makes you want to know him.  No matter what he does, you just want to like him and hear him talk.  Although sometimes nearly unbearable to watch, Django delivers with endearing and likeable characters, hilarity, heart, and a never-been-done take on slavery.  No matter how many layers of blood and gore coated the scenes of this film,  the sentimentality shown through.
     My next rambling veneration goes to Argo.  Ben Afflec is BACK!  He fell off the quality movie wagon for a while but he has crawled back on and it wasn't difficult for one so talented.  I know he is talented because I saw Argo.  It is amazing that a film based on history could cause me so much nail biting and edge of my seat sitting.  I knew the ending and I was still wracked with solicitude.  The film is funny while also inspiring.  Alan Arkin and John Goodman stole the show for me.  They acted as though they've been friends all their lives and everything was a joke to them until it mattered and then you could actually see the trepidation in their very demeanor.  This is giving credit to two pieces of a puzzle full of hugely adept pieces.  The cast was outstanding.  The script was phenomenal, the directing was marvelous.  This film made history amusing and refreshing.  This film made history.
     Next on the list is Les Miserables.  I was raised on the music of Jean Valjean, Eponine, Fantine, Javert, and many, many more.  I will give one criticism.  I don't feel that this film did the music justice.  The voices were not strong and the added song was unecessary and ill-fitting to the rest of the unexcelled original music.  That being said, the acting was divine and the cinemetography was elegant and gritty and real.  Anne Hathaway made a perfect Fantine.  I am not generally a fan of Anne Hathaway's, but this role was one she was born to play.  She played the part and made you feel for her while still singing the songs the way they were written to be sung.  The directing was thoughtful and exquisite.  Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen stole the show with their portrayals of the Thenardiers.  This is normally a role in the play that bores me but I found myself hoping that these two pilferers would just keep coming back.  Bottom line, an exceptional movie, a lackluster musical.
     My next applaud goes to Silver Linings Playbook.  I am thrilled with the number of oscar nominees that left me smiling.  I left the theater feeling like I couldn't frown if I wanted to.  It was one of the most cheerful films I've seen in a long time.  There was a darkness hidden beneath the surface and it kept threatening to burst free and ruin everything.  Our naive and winsome lead, Pat (played by the skillful Bradley Cooper) would not let that happen.  No matter what happened, he would not let it get him down.  The title is appropriate to the bouyant attitude of the film.  The surprising part was the fact that the characters were so relateable and realistic while still never losing hope.  The film wasn't cheapened by it's optimism.  The performances of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as mentally unstable grown-ups who know one realizes are more grown up than they seem was astute.  In the end, the viewer was left with the impression that everyone is a little crazy and some people know how to hide it better than others but, more importantly, some people know how to handle it better than others.  This is a movie that highlights the silver linings in life and people. 
     Beasts of the Southern Wild opened my eyes to an untouched life and people.  The people of the Bathtub, a southern delta community at the edge of the world live a life of simplicity and childishness.  Hushpuppy is the most adorable heroine to date and the viewer is rooting for her.  I almost wanted to enter into the film and just be her mom but she proved to me through the genious portrayal by Quvenzhane Wallis that she doesn't need anyone.  The film is barefaced and bold; at times, difficult to watch.  It was amazing how beautiful a film so gritty could be.  It was encouraging and moving and bolstering.  My glass is raised to Wallis who showed me what courage really looks like and to this film that showed me what audacity looks like.
      I saw Life of Pi and felt like God was watching with me.  I have read the novel and it has been one of my unsurpassed favorites for years.  Ang Lee did an unrivaled job of directing this film and bringing a much-loved novel to life.  The cinemetography was masterful.  I didn't realize the tiger was CGI until after I watched it and I almost didn't believe it.  Them's some good graphics.  I loved feeling like I was an unseen companion to this lonely young man and that I was bolstering him in some way.  This was a magical book to screen adaptation.  The tragedy and grace and faith of the novel was not lost in the film and the acting was stellar.  The film leaves you believing in something whether it's God or yourself.
     Zero Dark Thirty is a lengthy film and is so enthralling it feels like it ends too soon.  The cast was stunning.  Bright, new characters kept coming into play and I was always wishing to see more of each and every one.  Obviously, Jessica Chastain was so raw and real as Maya that she was nominated for a well-deserved best actress oscar.  You could see what she was feeling and trying to contain.  The script was clever and heart felt.  The mission was intriguing and suspenseful every step of the way.  This was the most thought provoking film I've seen in a very long time.  Opinions are brought to the surface and forced out when a film like this comes along.  Bravo, Kathryn Bigelow.
     The two, I have not reviewed but are still on my list to see are Lincoln and Amour.  I know, I know.  How could I not have seen Lincoln yet?  Trust me, I'm aware of the travesty of the situation.  I'll alert you as soon as I've seen it.  As for Amour, I don't know how I'm going to accomplish this fete seeing as it's a french film and I've searched high and low and seen neither hide nore hair of it.  I am relentless, though and will not stop until I have seen it and reviewed it for you here on my stupendous blog.  Or maybe it's just stupid.  We'll see.
    

Two years to recap. Never taking a break again.

It's been a WHILE.  Sorry.  I get sidetracked VERY easily.  This has been quite an interesting couple years.  I tried my feet at roller derby.  I'm going to brag a little and say I was very good.  I was a little speed demon and I can take the hits but I gave up.  Yes, I'm a quitter.  I had too much going on with my two jobs.  I went to some phenomenal concerts summer 2012.  I saw Devotchka, M. Ward, Iron&Wine, The Avett Brothers.  Those were my favorite ones.  In the midst of those concerts, I made the horrible decision to become a nanny.  It was quite the adventure.  I went from being an independent gal completely set in her ways, to having three girls.  They were 8, 5, and 2.  Yikes.  I should tell you, I loved them.  They were adorable.  They were also very hard work simply because I didn't get any gradual build up to motherhood.  Zero to three overnight.  We went to the zoo and we did tie dye and we wrote stories and made collages and went to the pool A LOT.  I should admit we also watched a lot of TV.  I got lazy.  I do feel that I did something worth while when I read The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe to them and they were entranced.  I spent a week in Lake Powell on a house boat and learned how to wake surf.  I never thought I'd want to accomplish that but I did it so now I can check it off my reverse bucket list.  If you're wondering what that is, it is a list of things you didn't put on your bucket list because you didn't realize you wanted to do it.  Never fear, just put it on your reverse bucket list once you've already completed it.  Lake Powell was very beautiful.  I had no phone service so it was also very relaxing and a perfect escape.  I'm still working in special education in an elementary school.  I'm still trying to decide if it's what I want to do officially but for now, I love everything about it.  In 2011, for the faculty Christmas party I performed the Napoleon Dynomite dance with the special ed teacher.  They still talk about it.  I got a polaroid camera and a telescope for Christmas this year.  I feel like a more impressive person because of it.  I'll keep thinking of cool things I did in the last two years.  In the mean time, my next post is on Oscar season!