LES OSCARS

I feel like I'm losing time trying to sum up the last few months of my movie-watching experience. In guilt from not writing about past films viewed, I've failed to write about Dine LA Restaurant Week (amaaaaaazing!), a weekend trip to The Fertile Lowlands (super, thanks for asking!) and everything in between...and a few things before...and even a little bit after.

So fuck it.

I'm done trying to make up for "last time." Let's start today and move forward.

Yes, in December, I met James McAvoy and Joe Wright after seeing ATONEMENT (wonderful!), and yes, I ate at some great restaurants during DineLA (among them eat.on sunset, Luna Park off Mid-Wilshire and Cobras & Matadors). Yes, I also KILLED my weekend in TFL by getting on the VIP list at Body English, a hot, hot little number I like to call Hot Hot Central. (ASIDE: did you know Las Vegas--which I usually refer to as "The Fertile Lowlands"--actually means "The Meadows" in Spanish? Where are those Meadows? Shouldn't it mean "The Deserts" or "The Wastelands"? Doesn't that just make more sense? Or maybe "Syphilis Strip?" Or is that a bit much?) But I can't write about all that. Because I have to move ON. To today. Oscars weekend.

Strangely, this is the first of any year I can immediately recall that I'd actually seen all the movies nominated for Best Picture. And it was no surprise to me that NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN just won. I voted for it, even though I was originally feeling more joy for ATONEMENT (Mr. McAvoy promised me love touches if I swayed the Academy's vote in favor of his movie--can you blame me?). But for the record, here are my thoughts on the five nominated films:

ATONEMENT
plot: "I'll never let go, Robbie."
thought: "Brutally beautiful in its complexity." (deep, huh?)
in five: 4.5/5 (Yeah, it's long. But it's WORTH it. WHY wasn't Joe Wright nominated for best director, I'll never know--oh, except I do. The Academy is xenophobic. Except that Marion Cotillard just won meilleure actrice--and in her speech she thanked love and life, might I add. Guess I just ate my own words.)

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
plot: "Killing you softly, without reason."
thought: "Cohens, you're the new amazing."
in five: 4/5

MICHAEL CLAYTON
plot: "Business politics are still politics."
long thought: "It's better if you just sleep through the middle."
in five: 3/5

JUNO
plot: "Funny girl has a baby."
thought: "Pretentious writing, over-hyped actress, but otherwise okay."
in five: 2/5 the first time I saw it; 3.5/5 after viewing numero dos. It didn't fully win me over...but it kind of did. Definitely shouldn't have been nominated for best picture--imo--but I guess they were thinking of it as a LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE potential winner. But it's not that movie. So stop it, Academy. Just stop it.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD
plot: "I abandoned my booooooooy!!!!"
thought: "Why won't this movie end?"
in five: 2/5 (I hated it. Sorry. I know it just won for cinematography, but I don't agree. Atonement got the diss. What gives?)

So there's my thoughts on tonight's favorites. Who I thought would win won. Who I wanted to win won. In fact, at my Oscars Party tonight, we had a ballot, and I got the highest score with 15. Count it! Basically, I'm as intelligent as every Academy member. So induct me, already.* I love the Oscars.

*15 isn't THAT good. I even missed best actress, sad. Everyone else was just worse, that's all.

Sweet November (the re-cap)

It's been a long ride, getting from unsettled to quasi-settled over the past few months, and hence, my writing (blogging? ugh, I hate that non-word) has gone to the wayside. I feel that I apologise in every new entry. Hopefully, though, this will be the last apology for a long while, since I have committed myself, at long last, to the winter wrap-up. November, a month long forgotten from the annals of 2007 movie-viewing, is now remembered.

The month started quick, as I was caught up in the rush of job interviews. Sadly, I was poor and confused in my new playspace of quasi-adulthood, but happily I found the time to visit a fine art museum--we'll call it "WorkMuseum," since it's across the street from my work--that showed an advance screening of the Cohen Brothers' latest wonder, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.
Plot: A killer Texas can't catch.
Thought: Javier Bardem, you so creepy!
4.5 out of 5 - that's right.
Best line (delivered by Javier Bardem as Anton): "You've been putting it up your whole life; you just didn't know it." STELLAR!

After a movie as serious as NO COUNTRY, I obviously needed a break. What better way to break it than by seeing something frivolous at home...such as ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING? Do you remember this film? There's big hair...florescent tights...there's a sing-a-long in the middle....
Plot: Uh...the title kind of says it all.
Thought: Goofy, unrealistic, and so eighties.
3/5

Apparently, I liked the time trip so much to the 1980s, I had to keep on traveling back. All the way back to LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and Peter O'Toole as a sexpot of a slightly gay general.
Plot: Golden man conquers Middle East.
[Plot 2: And it takes FOUR HOURS. (this movie is way long)]
Thought: Oscar for Peter O'Toole? Oscar? Oscar?
4/5
Best line (delivered by Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence): "All right! I'm extraordinary! What of it?" Man, do I know the feeling!

So you see that? There's November. I saw THREE MOVIES. That's it. And it took me three months to write about them. Sad, just sad. But I'm still saving December for another night. Sorry, it's past my bedtime.