miss woods comma elle

2 more flicks...

Endured the Hugh Grant/Drew Barrymore thing MUSIC AND LYRICS.  I suspect everyone involved in this movie was aiming for pleasant and generic.  They succeeded! Drew Barrymore bugged me less than usual.  Lots of Broadway folk in the supporting cast, which is always fun to see...Matt Morrison, Jason Antoon, Kristen Johnston, etc.

I'm much more excited about Christopher Nolan's FOLLOWING. It's Nolan's first film and there are some interesting parallels to Memento and his Batmans.  The movie was shot for $6,000 and all on Saturdays.  It is 70 minutes.  I found it very compelling.  Worth a rental.

Bi,

D.

i used to pray for the day you'd leave

OK.  I've watched 2 more films.  Roman Polanski's 1974 classic CHINATOWN and Gela Babluani's underseen and deeply disturbing 13 TZAMETI.  Both movies thrilled me.  I had seen Chinatown on Betamax as a kid...probably when I was 12 or 13.  I remember liking aspects of it, and understanding the tone, but it's a very adult movie and I wasn't able to fully appreciate the fullness of its script until now.  It's a very cynical, romantic, complicated masterpiece. Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway are incredible.  

I recall skimming a couple of positive reviews for 13 Tzameti when it was released in July 06, but never knew what it was about.  I am very happy to have been able to watch the movie without any previous knowledge of its intense content.  If you enjoy slowly building tension with a nice Nihilist energy, please check out the movie.  It's French.  The black and white cinematography is incredible.  The reviews I read after seeing the flick compare it to old school Eastern European cinema.  Does anyone have any specific examples of similar films I should view?

Gonna try to watch a couple of more flix now.  Lata.

2008 Film Blog

I'm going to try to report in on EVERY film I watch over the course of this year, regardless of whether the films are old classics, bullshit entertainment or new releases.

The first movie I watched this year was the 1959 Katherine Hepburn/Liz Taylor "classic" Suddenly, Last Summer.  The material is kinda dated and silly, but everyone commits 100% and the results are fairly captivating.  

My 2nd film of the year was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  Nope, I had never seen it before. I probably would have been OK keeping it that way.  Fun script, and Newman and Redford are ridiculously beautiful, but at the end of the day, who cares?

 

2008 Oscar Predictions

Hey there,

It's a strange Oscar season.  Due to the Writers Strike, no one quite knows what will happen with the actual ceremony, thus there is an odd air of ambiguity regarding the whole process. My predictions indicate a pervasive darkness to the nominees. In my heart, I'm hopeful all this darkness will be embraced, but my brain tells me some big compromises will be made and some random "happy" movies will be represented.  

Here are my current thoughts for the nominations;

Best Picture

Atonement

Into the Wild

No Country for Old Men

Sweeney Todd

There Will Be Blood

Best Actress

Helena Bonham-Carter in Sweeney Todd

Julie Christie in Away from Her

Marion Cotilliard in La Vie en Rose

Keira Knightley in Atonement

Ellen Page in Juno

Best Actor

George Clooney in Michael Clayton

Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood

Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd

Emile Hirsch in Into the Wild

Denzel Washington in American Gangster

Best Supporting Actress

Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There

Catherine Keener in Into the Wild

Saoirse Ronan in Atonement

Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone

Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton

Best Supporting Actor

Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James

Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men

Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson's War

Hal Holbrook in Into the Wild

Tom Wilkinson in Michael Clayton

Best Director

Paul Thomas Anderson/There Will Be Blood

Tim Burton/Sweeney Todd

Joel Coen & Ethan Coen/No Country for Old Men

Ridley Scott/American Gangster

Julian Schnabel/The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The End, for now.