Long time gone, but I'm back - Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Henry Fonda, Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett

It's been a while. Writer's block sucks. This is going to be quick and dirty, and I hope to get back on track.

6/20/18 Now, Voyager, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, 1942

Bette Davis stars as the ugly duckling turned swan, Charlotte Vale, in this film that also features Claude Rains and Paul Heinreid. Charlotte is dominated by her mother and matriarch of the Vale family (Gladys Cooper); she is bullied so much so that she is sent to a sanitarium under the treatment of Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains). Charlotte blossoms and discovers her own personality and strength. Davis was nominated for Best Actress, but Greer Garson won for her role as Kay Miniver in Mrs. Miniver; Katharine Hepburn was nominated as Tess Harding in Woman of the Year, and Joan Fontaine in Rebecca as The Second Mrs. DeWinter. I enjoyed the film and watching Charlotte's transformation. There was something about the film that seemed relevant today, over seventy five years later.

6/21/18 The Adventures of Robin Hood, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, 1938

The Adventures of Robin Hood is a fun movie; Errol Flynn seems to be enjoying his role as Robin Hood, teasing and basically giving Prince John (Claude Rains) and Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone) a very hard time until King Richard returns to England from the Crusades. The movie has swashbuckling action, humor, a love story featuring Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland) and Robin, and an Oscar-winning score. The fabulous Technicolor is still eye-popping (even on my twenty year old television), I can't imagine what it was like on a big screen when most films were still in black and white (Now Voyager was released four years after this was in black and white). If you're looking for a fun movie for a weekend at the cabin, I would recommend this one.

6/23/18 One Survivor Remembers, Best Documentary Short, National Film Registry, 1995

As we lose Holocaust survivors to age, it becomes more and more important to remember their stories and what those stories mean to us, especially in the upside down world we're living in these days. Survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein narrates her story and the story of her family, who perished in the camps. Her experience is one of destruction and death, but also resilience, strength and love. The film is available on YouTube (and hopefully in the link below) and her acceptance speech at the Academy Awards show is included and it is well worth watching.

6/23/18 The Anderson Platoon, Best Documentary Feature, 1967

In the 21st century, with the 24-hour news cycles and smartphone videos coming from every corner of the world, it may be hard to imagine a time when it wasn't quite as common for a film crew to be embedded with a platoon that is in combat. French director Pierre Schoendoerffer was with the American 1st Cavalry Division in South Vietnam, specifically a platoon led by West Point graduate, Lieutenant Joseph Anderson. The film takes us into the jungle and combat, we also get brief biographies on the soldiers, and updates on injuries and mortalities. The Vietnam War was controversial and divisive, but the film really focuses on the soldiers, the young men, barely into their twenties, who are far from home, and trying to survive.

6/30/18 The Bad and the Beautiful, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction (B&W), Best Cinematography (B&W), Best Costume Design (B&W), Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay, National Film Registry, 1952

I feel like I should have loved this movie, but I didn't. It was fine, I liked it, but it seemed derivative, a lot of Citizen Kane and a little bit of Ace in the Hole (also starring Kirk Douglas). Douglas is Jonathan Shields, a producer/studio head, who has no qualms about using people to advance his career, even if it hurts others. Three of these 'others' are gathered together, and in flashbacks, we learn how Shields cheated, betrayed or hurt them. Gloria Grahame won the Best Supporting Actress for her role as the Southern belle wife of one of the people that Shields hurt; she was on screen for less than twenty five minutes, and I personally think it should have gone to Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont in Singin' in the Rain. Watching the film was timely because a few weeks earlier I watched Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, starring Annette Bening as Grahame. I think your life will continue on if you don't watch this, but if you do watch it, I don't think it's the worst thing in the world, either.

6/30/18 Ocean's 8, not yet nominated 2018

I don't have any great analysis on Ocean's 8 starring Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway and a cast of very talented actresses. It was a fun, smart, fast paced eist movie, along the lines of the other "Ocean's" movies. I would actually watch it again, which I don't say very often about any movie. Will it be nominated? Very possibly not, but I don't care. It's probably going to be out on video/streaming soon, and it would be great for a movie night (pretty much for the whole family). 

7/8/18 Jezebel, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, National Film Registry, 1938

It took me a while to get into Jezebel, starring Bette Davis as spoiled Southern belle Julie Marsden. I don't know, perhaps I was distracted. It was really towards the end that I appreciated what the movie was about. It also stars Henry Fonda as Julie's frustrated beau. It is 1850s New Orleans and Julie is headstrong and not afraid to defy conventions, and while that may be admired today, it causes her and her family embarrassment. Watching Davis in Now, Voyager and then Jezebel, you can see her range and why she is considered such a great actress; two very different characters, although they are united by their ultimate strength. It's not a movie to watch if you're looking for laughs or an escape from the world, but it is worth watching.

7/8/18 Dodsworth, Best Art Direction, National Film Registry, 1936

I had never heard of Dodsworth before, and I hadn't read anything about it before I watched it, so I had no idea what it was about. I would consider it a pleasant surprise. William Wyler directed Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton and Mary Astor in this look at marriage in the first half of the twentieth century. In some ways, it takes a very common occurrence, the husband (Huston as Sam Dodsworth) retires and decides he wants to do all those things he and his wife (Chatterton as Fran Dodsworth) didn't have time for, and then they both find out (although Fran might have known all along) that they don't necessarily want the same things, and Fran is a little freer in finding other companions. I was rooting for Sam all the way, even as he struck up a friendship with Edith Cortright (Mary Astor) and found his bliss in Italy. I truly was not certain how the movie would end, and I'm not going to tell you, but if you want to try a movie off the beaten path (have you ever heard of Dodsworth?) pick it up from the library or Netflix.

A trip through the National Film Registry: Boyz N the Hood, Paris is Burning, Daughters of the Dust, Princess Bride

You could say I went a little crazy with the National Film Registry list over Memorial Day Weekend, and with that many movies, I was bound to come across one I didn't like or possibly even loathed. I suppose, honestly, there was only one that I was so-so about, otherwise, I would recommend any of the following films. 

5/23/18 Boyz N the Hood, 1991

When Boyz N the Hood first came out (I promise, I don't say this for every movie), I wasn't terribly interested in seeing it, it was just not my thing at the time (let's just say I have lived in a series of metaphorical boxes in my life, I'm a little better now). However, after watching Straight Outta Compton (because it was on a list), I realized that just because something may not exactly be in my wheelhouse, doesn't mean it's not good or that I won't end up liking it. I suppose that's what happened with Boyz N the Hood, I decided just to watch it; there's a lot of swearing, and it's not that I'm a prude, I swear A LOT myself, I sometimes think it's just lazy writing, but, that is how some kids/teenagers talk, and writer/director John Singleton does a lot of things, but he does not treat the characters or the audience with kid gloves. The movie follows a three friends as they grow up in South Central Los Angeles, a community that has too many shootings, too many drugs and poor relations with the police. Tre (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) lives with his demanding and strict father, "Furious" (Laurence Fishburne), and has a real job at the mall (he's a teenager). His friends are Doughboy (Ice Cube) and Doughboy's half brother (also their mother's favorite), Rick (Morris Chestnut). Doughboy has spent a lot of his young years in prison, and is struggling to find his feet; Rick is a football scholarship candidate, which makes his mother proud and is a way out of the neighborhood, and can help him make a better life for his young son. The guys and their friends are out one night, just chilling, when members of different gang cause some trouble and Doughboy flashes a gun, which is only a temporary solution, because minutes later, the other gang starts firing off a gun into the air. And this is how things spiral rapidly out of control. You show me yours, I'll show you mine; mine is bigger than yours; I can kill you first. Singleton shows us black young men killing each other, often because it doesn't seem like there are any other options. The death of Rick (I hope I didn't spoil it) highlighted the senselessness of this tit for tat violence. It's not gratuitous at all, there's a point - the point is: nobody wins. Rick's young son certainly didn't win. I felt like someone sucked the air out of the room when it happened. And Doughboy, who has always been protective of Rick, and way more streetsmart, is out for vengeance. Tre doesn't participate in any of the retribution, because he knows he'll never get out if he does. Like Daughters of the Dust, and Paris is Burning, Boyz N the Hood looks at a community that did not have any kind of voice when the film was released. Singleton was nominated for Oscars for Best Director (the youngest at the time) and Best Original Screenplay. After I finished watching, I texted my youngest brother and asked if he had seen it before (he wasn't even born when it came out) and he said of course, and it was a great movie. That is a sign of a movie that 'is culturally, historically or aesthetically significant", if it can be watched and appreciated by newer generations.


5/26/18 Atlantic City, 1980

Louis Malle's film, Atlantic City, was the critics' darling when it came out, I remember the praise that was heaped on Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon and the director; of course, I couldn't see it because it's rated R, and I was too young. I love Lancaster in pretty much anything, he always seems so effortless, and I do like him as Lou, the former gangster who takes numbers and keeps company with the widow of his deceased boss. He also has his eyes on Sally (Sarandon), a wannabe black jack dealer. Sally's estranged/former (I wasn't really sure) husband shows up on her doorstep with his pregnant wife/girlfriend with a lot of cocaine to sell. Clearly, you don't need a lot of insight or psychic skills to figure out that nothing good is going to happen. So, the movie is definitely not a mystery, but a look into the relationships of different people: Lou, who is re-energized by his relationship with Sally; Sally, who likes Lou's seeming sophistication, but gets frustrated with his reluctance to contemplate the possibilities in Europe; Lou's subservient attitude towards Grace. It seems like Lou is a dinosaur in the waning days of the Jurassic period. It's not the good old days. Both Lancaster an Sarandon were nominated for Oscars, as well as being nominated for Best Picture, but the movie came away with no Oscars (this was the year that Chariots of Fire won the Best Picture Oscar, and Red, Raiders of the Lost Ark and On Golden Pond were all nominated). I'm not totally sure why it's on the National Film Registry list.

5/27/18 Paris is Burning, 1991

Even though I watched Paris is Burning in May, I'm finally reviewing it in June, which is fitting since it is Pride Month. Paris is Burning is a documentary by Jennie Livingston that takes us into the world of balls in New York City, a highly competitive environment. The balls allow gay and transgender people, mostly of the African-American and Latino communities, members of an already marginalized GLBTQ society, to strut and be proud and embrace who they are, with a fierceness that is fun to watch. "Voguing" which was popularized in mainstream culture by Madonna, originated at the ball events. The documentary was filmed in the mid to late 80s, only twenty years or so after the Stonewall Riots, and in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, but decades away from Laverne Cox and her groundbreaking role on Orange is the New Black, The Transparent series or Daniela Vega in A Fantastic Woman (2017 Oscar winning film). The interviews provide a glimpse into why the performers do what they do, how they support each other, and how they compete. I felt particularly drawn to Dorian Corey, who was like an elder of the group, and had many insights and could be quite sharp in her observations and commentary. The transgender community is one that is misunderstood by the heterosexual and the gay and lesbian communities, but their history must be included and they should be recognized for their contributions and pain. That may sound incredibly pretentious, but I don't really care, and I think watching this documentary is a way to start.

5/27/18 The Atomic Café, 1982

This documentary consists of historical newsreel footage, film and television clips and public service films edited together in a somewhat frightening fashion, but also occasionally awkwardly funny and naïve. Many of the scenes are how to avoid nuclear fallout by hiding under a table or covering your head under a desk; packing a survival kit of canned and powdered foods; or the scary scenes of the nuclear testing done on Bikini Atoll, that had horrible impacts on the native population, which, according to US military personnel on scene, was all for the good of humanity. It might not be a bad idea to dust off this old chestnut and get it out on the airwaves, given the current climate, just to remind us of the risks and dangers of nuclear warfare.

5/28/18 Daughters of the Dust, 1991

The lists giveth, and the lists taketh away. In this case, the list definitely giveth. Julie Dash wrote and directed Daughters of the Dust, the story of the Peazant family, a clan who have lived on the St. Simons Island, off the coast of Georgia (the Gullah islands), for generations. The movie is set in the early part of the 20th century, roughly forty years after the end of the Civil War. The family is led by Nana Peazant, the keeper of the traditions and memories (good and bad) of the family, and determined not to leave her home. The younger generations have already moved to the mainland, two of her granddaughters have already moved there, Viola and Yellow Mary. Normally I have trouble with storylines that are non-linear, I like things told in order, but I was so interested in this family and their history, I went with it. You have to pay attention because there are several storylines and also because the actors speak in the Gullah dialect, which is close to Creole, and sometimes things happened quickly and my ears couldn't keep up. In some ways, at its core, the movie is about family, it could be about any family, an immigrant family deciding to leave their ancestral home for a better life, and possibly leaving the old ways behind. In another way, it is more than that, because this family has already left their ancestral home in Africa, perhaps only seventy five or hundred years earlier, unwillingly, and this departure is their choice. The actors, none of whom I have ever heard of, own their roles, it's like they were made for the parts or vice versa; there were several powerful performances. The cinematography was so beautiful, otherworldly (if that's not too dramatic), for whatever it might mean to you, it reminded me of the original Picnic at Hanging Rock (another movie that I was enthralled by at the time). (I just read some reviews of the film on Netflix, which I generally don't do, and there are definitely extreme feelings about the movie, um, some not so nice, and others lavish in their praise; I suppose that's pretty normal. I hate The Usual Suspects, while others think it's the best movie ever). I still liked Daughters of the Dust.

5/28/18 The Princess Bride, 1987

Believe it or not, I have never seen The Princess Bride in its entirety or even more than a few seconds of clips. So before you can say it, I will: "Inconceivable!" I will also say, I liked it, I enjoyed it, I laughed. The comedy-fantasy-adventure was directed by Rob Reiner, and has what would now be considered an all-star cast: Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Cary Elwes, Christopher Guest, Andre the Giant, Carol Kane, Billy Crystal, Peter Falk and Fred Savage. Peter Falk narrates the movie as he reads to his reluctant grandson played by Fred Savage. Since I may be the only person in the universe to have not seen The Princess Bride, I don't need to recap the plot. I don't know why I was so reluctant to watch it, I think because all of my friends just loved it, and at my core, I'm a contrarian, so I thought, nothing can be that funny or quotable. I'm not so stubborn that I can't say I was wrong. It reminded me of some of Mel Brooks' movies (Brooks is a friend and comedic partner of Reiner's father, Carl Reiner): jokes/lines that appear throughout the movie; ridiculous dialog played absolutely straight, full of puns and word play and silly accents; actors that appear to be having a great time (Andre the Giant was so fabulous and funny); and a story that has a ring of familiarity but is still original. The movie received no Oscar nominations and wasn't even that successful in its box office run, and yet, there are probably more people who have now seen The Princess Bride than have seen Atlantic City which was nominated for five Oscars. Sometimes winning an Oscar is not a guarantee of a long legacy. Having said that, I TOTALLY get why it's on the National Film Registry list.

5/28/18 Hester Street, 1975

Watching Hester Street, starring Carol Kane, Steven Keats and Doris Roberts, was like being there when my great grandparents arrived in New York from Russia. Steven Keats is Yankl, now Jake, and he comes to America before his wife and young son; he also tries to become as American as possible, and begins a relationship with Mamie, a dancer. Jake's wife, Gitl and son, Yossele, arrive in New York City, and Jake doesn't seem very pleased, he is especially unhappy that Gitl doesn't shed her Old World habits as quickly as he would like. Doris Roberts plays Mrs. Kavarsky and befriends Gitl. In case we've forgotten, the immigrant experience can be lonely and hard, regardless of your country of origin. The movie is in English and Yiddish, and while I don't really understand a lot of Yiddish, it made me think of my grandparents and older relatives who would occasionally use it when they didn't want us to understand something. Carol Kane was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. Joan Micklin Silver wrote the screenplay and directed the film (she directed Crossing Delancey). By way of six degrees of separation, Silver is married to Rabbi Raphael Silver who is the son of the late Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, and back in the early 1990s, I worked on team processing the Rabbi's historical papers. 

Documentaries: Maya Lin, Inocente, Anne Frank Remembered, The Thin Blue Line

12/14/16 Maya Lin: A strong clear vision, Best Documentary, 1994

If you are old enough to remember when the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was commissioned and created, you may recall the controversy around it. It was created by a very young woman, of Chinese parentage and was in stark contrast to what most people thought a memorial should be. If anyone was up to these challenges, sometimes very insulting and aggressive dissension, it was Maya Lin. Maya Lin was a young student when she entered a contest to find the design for a memorial to the veterans of the Vietnam War. She designed a memorial of long walls with the names of those men and women killed in the war etched into it in chronological order. The walls are sunk into the ground. Having been there, I can attest to the powerful feeling I had as a citizen; the documentary shows veterans being overwhelmed by their emotions and memories. In the documentary, Lin is interviewed about her though process for the design of the memorial, explaining her decisions from the order of the names, to the positioning of the walls to why the memorial is sunken below ground. The film allows the viewer insight into her other works, the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, Women's Table at Yale University (her alma mater). While Lin is well-spoken in the film sharing her visual ideas, and passionate about her visions, she seems very uncomfortable when receiving accolades or presenting her work to an audience. She believes that the work should be the focus, whether it is the memories of Vietnam for the veterans, or the participants of the Civil Rights Movement, it is the work and the viewers' interpretations that are important. If people are moved, then she has done her job. The movie spends the most time on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the controversy of Lin's selection, the reaction of the veterans, as well as Lin's insights; it also follows her as she works on newer pieces, in her home state of Ohio, as well as throughout the United States. It was very interesting to watch her work, especially because I have wondered how large pieces get done, it's not just the artist, that's for sure. Maya Lin recently received the Presidential Medal of  Freedom by President Obama. She is an American treasure and I totally recommend watching this documentary.

12/16/16 Letter from an Unknown Woman, 1948, #48 BBC, National Film Registry

So many thoughts went through my head as I watched Letter from an Unknown Woman, starring Joan Fontaine (Rebecca) and Louis Jourdan (Gigi), co-produced by John Houseman and directed by Max Ophuls. One thought was, why I have never heard of this movie? Two, how come Hollywood has not remade it (a Chinese remake was done in the early 2000s)? And three, not that receiving an Oscar, or being nominated, means a movie is great, how did this movie not get nominated for any Oscars? Set in the early 20th century, Joan Fontaine is Lisa, a Viennese teenager who lives in the same apartment building as Stefan Brand (Jourdan), a concert pianist. Brand really doesn't notice Lisa, but she is completely smitten with him, and moons after him, ignoring and neglecting everything else. Her mother remarries, and the family moves to Linz, against Lisa's wishes. In Linz, Lisa is wooed by Johann, a young soldier, and both families have hopes of wedding bells, except for Lisa. She upsets that applecart and runs back to Vienna, hoping to find Stefan again. They do meet, but although Stefan is immediately smitten by her, he does not recall Lisa from the apartment building. They spend the entire night together, and Stefan promises more evenings and days and dinners together, except he forgot he had to leave on tour for two weeks. He also left Lisa with a permanent reminder of their night together, a child. In our 21st century world, that is probably not shocking or scandalous, but in the early 1900s, that was a pretty big deal, and having this as a significant plot point in the 1940s would also be outrageous (perhaps that is why there were no Oscar nominations?). Whether through luck, brains, guile or something else, Lisa and her child are not thrown into destitution, and she eventually reconnects with Johann, who has moved up in the military and is quite successful, and he is also forgiving of her past, to a point. I liked the movie, and when I tried to watch it as someone would back in 1948, I thought it was groundbreaking; I thought Lisa was unrealistic and she annoyed me (as a character), but I did like Joan Fontaine, and Louis Jourdan was handsome, dashing and a bit of a rogue. It's not necessarily a date night movie (or perhaps it is, I'm not the best judge), but if you are looking for something different from 'the usual', give this a try, if you can find it.

12/17/16 Anne Frank Remembered, Best Documentary, 1995

The Diary of Anne Frank was a dramatized telling of the Frank family's time in hiding in Amsterdam. Anne Frank Remembered is more about Anne as she grew up, her friends who knew her as a little girl, family friends, including Miep Gies, the woman who worked for Otto Frank, helped set them up in the attic and found Anne's diary after the family was captured by the Nazis. We get a look at how her friends saw Anne and her sister Margot; Margot was serious and studious, while Anne was mischievous, spoiled (some said), argumentative, and as several of her friends said, a regular teenager. The documentary begins before the Second World War, even before Anne was born, with the Frank family living in Germany, through their move to The Netherlands, trying to escape the rising anti-Semitism in Germany. I really enjoyed this documentary, especially for the fact that it does not try and paint Anne as a saint, she's a teenager, a young girl, who has arguments with her parents and other adults. She is eminently relatable to other teenagers, whether those who read her story in the 1950s or the 2000s. We hear from her friends who survived the camps, who knew Anne and her sister in their last days. I strongly recommend watching this documentary, with your kids, with a group of friends. It's important that Anne's story, and the story of her friends and family, not be forgotten, especially today.

12/17/16 Inocente, Best Documentary Short, 2012

It has been a real challenge trying to balance, fun and entertaining movies, with educational and enlightening films that may be a bit heavy and sad. Inocente is a little bit of everything, all packed into forty minutes. Inocente Izucar is a young, homeless girl living in San Diego with her mother and two brothers. She finds solace and relief in her art, starting the day by creating wearable art on her face. Inocente and her family have been homeless for many years, never staying in one place for more than three months. She's ashamed to let her classmates know that she is homeless, so she doesn't tell them. Inocente goes to ARTS (A Reason To Survive) in San Diego where she finds mentors and encouragement to pursue her painting. I think it is so easy to look down on the homeless, or undocumented workers and blame them for their circumstance, but a child (Inocente is 15 at the time of filming, but she has been living under these conditions for most of her life) has very little say in their conditions. As Inocente says, nobody wakes up and says they want to be homeless. She blames herself for the violent explosion of her father, which is a very common (and misplaced) sentiment from kids. But she doesn't use being homeless as an excuse, she uses it to propel her forward, and as inspiration in her art. Her art is colorful, hopeful, but also thoughtful and thought-provoking. I cried, I smiled, I learned. I think you may do the same.

12/17/16 The Thin Blue Line, 1988, National Film Registry

I've been learning more about our justice system (it's broken) and about men and women sentenced to life in prison or death sentences and that it's not always about proof or evidence or the pursuit of truth. I suggest reading Just Mercy by attorney and advocate Bryan Stevenson and the novel A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines, which while fiction is a fair representation of the legal system and the noblesse oblige of life in the South in the 1940s. This may seem like a digression, but it's not really. The Thin Blue Line is a documentary by Errol Morris about Randall Dale Adams and his sentence, first of death, later commuted to life in prison; the conviction was later overturned. Adams was wrongly convicted of killing a police officer after the police relied on evidence from a sixteen year old young man who had picked up Adams after his car ran out of gas; David Ray Harris later confessed to the shooting. The police also relied on 'eye witness' testimony by people who turned out later to not be very reliable, and in fact, may have been more interested in the reward money than helping solve crime. Eye witness testimony has been demonstrated to be highly unreliable under most circumstances. Morris interviews Adams in a Texas prison, who emphatically denied his guilt. He also interviewed Harris in prison; while Adams is angry about his situation, Harris seemed to me not to really care, admitting his past bad behaviors (although not immediately to killing the police officer). Adams's original defense attorneys are interviewed, as well as the judge, detectives and the witnesses who testified against Adams. The movie was released in 1988 and Adams's conviction was overturned in 1989; Harris was not charged with the death of the Dallas police officer. Neither Adams nor Morris could know the conviction would be overturned when the film was being made (Morris did not want it labeled a 'documentary'). The Thin Blue Line has informed and influenced many later documentaries, which is reflected in its place on the National Film Registry.

Two foreign film entries from 2015: Son of Saul, Mustang

5/15/16 Son of Saul, Best Foreign Film, 2016

Terezin, Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia)

I had the chance to see Son of Saul in the theaters but I wasn't ready; I have to be in the right frame of mind to watch or read anything on the Holocaust. Son of Saul tells its story from the vantage point of Saul, a member of the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz (Sonderkommando were work units made up of prisoners who scrubbed the floors of the gas chambers, removed bodies, looked for jewelry or any gold on the bodies, etc.). When we first see Saul, he is a shell of a man, numb to the horrors that surround him, until a young boy is pulled from the shower and is still, somehow, breathing. The medical personnel is ordered to kill the boy and then perform an autopsy to see how he managed to survive. Saul sees the boy and recognizes him as his son, and even though he was unable to protect him while he was alive, he becomes fixated on finding a rabbi to perform a proper Jewish burial. There is a rabbi in Saul's group, but he wants to say kaddish later, but Saul is determined to this the right way, although he does not freely share the reason for his focus. Like all quests, he must accomplish other tasks along the way, including trying to get gun powder from the women's camp, helping to take secret pictures of life in the camp. Eventually Saul believes he has found a rabbi, but the man was an imposter. Saul takes the body of the boy to try and give him a burial, but time and other events conspire against him. The movie is filmed at a frenetic pace, there are no leisurely walks across the camp, everyone is scurrying about, everything is done in a hurry; the guards, Nazi and Kapos, yell, push and harass the prisoners, those who about to die and those who dare to live. There is a cacophony of languages: German, Polish, Hungarian, Russian and Yiddish, unlike other films, especially English language films, everyone does not necessarily understand everyone else, beatings occurred because the prisoners may not speak German. The viewpoint of the film struck me - we saw most of the film from Saul's perspective, as if the cameraman was right behind him. To me it made it very claustrophobic, few wide angle shots or shots that panned around, we saw it from Saul's perspective. It was a very intense film, and told the story of a group of men that is rarely shown and hard to watch. The director and writer cast no judgement on the Sonderkommandos or on Saul, either judging their daily tasks or that they do them; or judging Saul and his actions trying to do something for his son in death that he couldn't do in life. I am loathe to say I loved a film like this, because how do you really say you love a movie or book about the Holocaust? I have seen three of the foreign films so far, and I really don't know how I would have voted, because they have been very good. Son of Saul was very good and then some, and I think that Geza Rohrig should have been more widely considered for Best Actor for his performance. This is a movie you may not want to see, but you should see it.

5/30/16 Mustang, nominated Best Foreign Film, 2016 

Mustang was a French-Turkish nominee, and is set in the countryside in Turkey in the current era, although as I watched it, I often felt like I was back in the 1800s. Mustang is the story of five sisters who have lived with their grandmother and uncle for around ten years since their parents died. Lale is the youngest and we see most of the story form her point of view. She is the most independent of the five. The girls are mischievous and fun-loving and don't like feeling fenced in by their conservative family, especially their uncle. The girls and their friends leave school for the summer and head to the beach where they play in the water and sit on the boys' shoulders. Unfortunately for them, a neighbor sees them, and thinking that they are behaving immorally, she reports them to their grandmother. The three oldest are beaten, and the restrictions on their freedom begins. The walls are built up, making it harder for the girls to leave undetected. Grandmother decides it is time to marry the girls off, and begins to arrange visits by prospective husbands. The eldest daughter, Sonay, defies her grandmother and tells her she will only marry the boy she loves; so the potential husband is deferred to Selma, the second oldest. To say this was not a love match would be insulting, but Selma doesn't fight the inevitability of the match. We get a glimpse of something untoward happening, but nothing is said, but it becomes evident that Grandmother may be in a hurry to marry off her granddaughters to protect them. Ece, the third daughter is next in line for marriage. She does not want the marriage and she does not want to be with her uncle any longer, but is not sure how to get out of it. She does find a way however. Throughout, the girls manage to escape their compound, but every time they do, their uncle puts more bars on the windows and doors. On one of her successful trips out, Lale asks Yasin, a friendly truck driver, to teach her how to drive. Lale and her sister, Nur, are the only ones left, and grandmother is not done with her matchmaking, telling Nur that she is next, and on the night of Nur's wedding, the girls turn things about, using the fact that the house is now a fortress to their advantage, keeping everyone else out, while they escape. They head to Istanbul where Lale's former teacher now lives. So far, none of the three foreign films nominated is a 'fun' movie, and I know people like to watch fun movies, but they are all very good, as I mentioned above. This was a very well done film, the five young women who played sisters really looked like sisters and acted liked sisters, they acted like girls from anywhere in the world. Sadly, the story of girls being treated as less than, and being restricted from having fun because it might be 'impure' are found in the news a lot these days. The movie is probably not as raw as it could have been, but it certainly conveys feelings and emotions of being held captive and being treated as chattel, but also a certain hopefulness and spirit in Lale, who is still young enough to believe that she can do anything. We see the Grandmother between a rock and hard place; a woman who loves granddaughters dearly, and perhaps has high hopes for them to have more freedom and education than she did growing up, but also knowing she is beholden to her son with whom they live. She wants to protect them, but is limited in her options. I thought this was a beautiful film, with a great score, in a beautiful country and a heartbreaking story.

Avengers, Billy Joel Live, Woman in Gold and more

The first two weeks of May have been filled with variety of the cinematic, television and musical kind. I am happy to present to you, May.

Turn Left at the End of the World, 2004

I don't remember how this movie ended up in my Netflix queue. I'm sure I randomly clicked it or read the synopsis and thought it would be interesting. And it was. Turn Left at the End of the World is set in the Negev desert in Israel in the 1960s and it focuses on the newer immigrants from Morocco and India. I did not know there were immigrants from India; I was aware of Moroccan Jews, but not really of their lives in Israel. Two girls, one from an Indian family and one from a Moroccan family, become friends despite their families' differences and disagreements. Both groups are wary and judgmental of the other. The movie is mostly in Hebrew but also in English and French. I think if you're looking for something a little different in terms of topic and locale, this might be of interest.

5/1/2015 Woman in Gold, 2015, not yet nominated

Woman in Gold is based on the true story of Maria Altmann and her fight to get back several family paintings taken by the Nazis during the Second World War. I mentioned this story about a year after I read the book The Lady in Gold, the Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer by Anne-Marie O'Connor. Helen Mirren stars as Marie Altmann and Ryan Reynolds is Randy Schoenberg, her reluctant attorney who takes up her cause and int he process, learns a little more about his own history. The movie uses flashbacks to help tell the story of Maria and her family's life, including her beloved aunt, Adele Bloch Bauer, who was at the center of many social gatherings in Vienna and the subject of an historic painting by Gustav Klimt. Mirren is wonderful as always, avoiding sentimentality but dealing with things in a determined, matter-of-fact way, occasionally with stubbornness, a little humor and a hint of satisfaction at the end result of her case (not smugness, though); Reynolds is up to the task, showing a bit of reluctance at even taking on this case, but eventually getting drawn into the enormity of the issue at hand and the connection to his own family (his grandfathers were Austrian composers Arnold Schoenberg and Eric Zeisl; Schoenberg is specifically mentioned as a friend of the Bloch Bauers), as well as matching wits with the very sharp Altmann/Mirren. There are very definite good guys and bad guys here, without guns or weapons, just a history of anti-Semitism and a desire to bury the past. Schoenberg and Altmann are met at every turn with roadblocks from the Austrian government, but Schoenberg finds loopholes in international and US law that allow them to pursue their case. There was something about Toman, the official from the Belvedere Museum that made me want to hiss and boo. Schoenberg and Altmann are assisted by Hubertus Czernin,(Daniel Bruhl) a Hungarian journalist who believes that in order to heal and move forward, Austria must acknowledge and make amends for its role during the Holocaust. I enjoyed the movie and am so glad this story has made it to film, but I was glad I read the book first because even though I struggled to get through the first hundred pages or so, O'Connor provided a rich background of life in Vienna in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and especially culturally; she also included information about the wider Bloch Bauer clan and what happened to the different members of the family. Obviously, that couldn't all be put into a ninety minute movie. I liked the movie, but if you haven't seen it on the big screen, I think it's a great film for your DVD or streaming pleasure, but you should see it.

5/2/15 Avengers: Age of Ultron, 5/2/15, not yet nominated

Followers of this blog will recall that I love my superhero movies, and as you can imagine, I have been waiting for this movie and the others promised by Marvel over the next few years. Age of Ultron reunites our heroes from the first Avengers movie and adds War Machine, Falcon, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and my favorite, The Vision, plus a new villain, Ultron. The movie opens right away with an action/fight sequence with the team fighting a Hydra outpost; this is where Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are introduced (if you saw the last X-Men movie, you may recall that Quicksilver made a key appearance there as well). There is some awesome action sequences, especially towards the end, but to be honest, there was too much talking for me. I just want flying and fighting and stuff like that, I was not thrilled with the subplot with Hawkeye (I have to agree with a column I read that Hawkeye should have been knocked off instead of the character who was); and I thought the subplot with Black Widow and The Hulk was ridiculous. I could use more Black Widow and other female heroes, so I am happy they added the Scarlet Witch to the mix (although it took a very long time for Elizabeth Olsen to grow on me, and I'm still not 100% there). On a side note, a friend of mine and I, who often discuss the merits of superhero movies, talked about how there are so many good female characters, enough to create their own movie. Oh well, maybe another time. I love The Vision and can't wait for more of him (played by Paul Bettany). I also LOVED how James Spader brought Ultron to life with his voice dripping with sarcasm, irony and  and all the characteristics that make his Raymond Reddington character so enjoyable (and the best thing about The Blacklist). Without disclosing too much of the plot, what I will say is this not my favorite Marvel movie (although I still liked it) and it seemed more like a bridge to the upcoming Captain America: Civil War and other movies like The Black Panther and the next Avengers. My guess is that it will get nominated for one or more of the effects categories. 

5/9/15 Father Goose, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, 1964

I love Cary Grant, not in that way, because I would have a lot of explaining to do, but I love his movies. Father Goose features a less than dapper Cary Grant as Walter Ecklund a drunken, ne'er do well, who finds himself in the South Pacific as the Japanese are threatening invasion to the islands. He is coerced/bribed into becoming a coast watcher for the Australian Navy. Ecklund is not really interested, but he really doesn't have a choice. He is sent on an unexpected mission to another island where he meets Catherine Freneau (Leslie Caron) who is in charge of seven young girls. Walter and Catherine are very different and exchange barbs and witticisms, with the girls often taking Catherine's side, until one of the girls, who has not spoken a word, forms a bond with Ecklund and they begin working on his boat that was damaged by the Australian Navy, essentially to strand him on the island. Relations improve between Catherine and Walter after they mistakenly believe she has been bitten by a poisonous snake; the audience is in on the misunderstanding and it's pretty funny. The group soon finds itself under attack from Japanese planes and tries to get off of the island. I certainly do not think this is the best movie ever, or the best Cary Grant movie ever, but it was fun to watch; one might even say 'cute'. There is a lot of drinking, it's pretty much Walter's raison d'etre, so it's hard to say this is a 'family movie', but there's practically no real violence (the gunshots don't really hit anyone), there's no swearing (I don't think, nothing sticks out, maybe a 'hell' or 'damn'), the kids are cute in the precocious 1960s way. This movie came towards the end of Grant's film career, in fact it was the next to lat movie that he did. Watch The Bishop's Wife or The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer for a glimpse of him in his prime.

Billy Joel, The Target Center, Minneapolis, 5/16/15

I've been to a lot of concerts over the past two years, and I have to say, that I feel very fortunate that every one of them has been a great experience; I've seen solo acts with just their guitars, I've seen bands with great stage shows and I've had fabulous seats, I've gotten signed CDs, etc., overall, I have not regretted a single event. Last night with Billy Joel was no exception. I've had the chance to see Billy Joel in the past, thirty years ago, in fact, and I just never wanted to. I must be getting old and nostalgic, but I really wanted to see him this time around, even if it was going to be at the Target Center, my least favorite venue. Gavin DeGraw opened up the show and he was full of energy and excitement and the crowd was very receptive. I appreciated his stage presence and performance, but I have to say, after twenty minutes, his stuff sounded the same. That may be because I am not as familiar with his material or because it really did sound the same. After realizing I was in the wrong section (it was not my only 'duh' moment of the evening), I scooted over one section to the left and waited for Mr. Joel to take the stage. Thank goodness for the screens, otherwise, I would have to take it on faith that he was on stage because I was pretty close to the roof (did I mention I hate this venue?). Billy opened with "My Life" and then played most of his well-known songs and a few gems that the hard-core fans really enjoyed. He played with a great energy and the band seemed to be really having a good time. There wasn't any of the 'arena rock' planned banter, it came off as being a conversation between a guy and 20,000 of his friends, it was easy, self-deprecating (he looked up at his image on the screen and said he thought he saw his dad; joked about the tiff between him and Elton John and songs about his former wife, Christie Brinkley) and appreciative. He gave the audience the chance to pick a couple of songs early on in the set. Songs included "Pressure", "Allentown", "Uptown Girl", "Vienna" (a song I had never heard before), "The Downeaster Alexa", "She's Always a Woman" (a favorite of mine), as well as a bit of "Like a Rolling Stone" just before he started "Piano Man". The encore had to be about 20 minutes or more and included another favorite "Big Shot", as well as  "You May Be Right" and "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me". His band would have been fun to watch if I had not been blinded by the landing lights that totally obscured them. That is probably my only issue with the concert, is the lights were so overwhelming and you couldn't watch the band rock out; if the camera wasn't on them, they weren't on the big screens. I love a band/performer that uses a horn section, and he had a trumpet, saxophones, slide trombone, with only three people. They were great and all multi-instrumentalists. My other issue is the woman behind me; look, I love rocking out to my favorite bands and singing with them (just wait until the Indigo Girls in July), but she was so high pitched and behind the count, that it was a little distracting. Love her passion, just wished it was quieter. I definitely got my money's worth that night, and I so enjoyed myself I didn't even care I went to the wrong parking garage to get my car.

More nominees: Selma, Gone Girl, Ida, Whiplash (43 movies to go)

Blogger's Note: Good grief, I started this entry on Sunday and it is now Tuesday night. I'd like to think this means I'm being thoughtful, but I honestly can't say, I just want to apologize for the delay. Clearly, I'm not meeting my self-imposed deadlines.

It has been a busy week. Someone asked if I could do this for a living. I don't think so. Too stressful, and I don't think I could meet my deadlines. I may make my current deadline, which is February 22, Oscar Night, and I'm on pace to hit 95%.

1/17/15 Selma, nominated Best Picture, Best Song 2014

This review is being written last, even though it was the first film in this selection that I saw. I wanted to be thoughtful, maybe thought-provoking. The truth is, I loved the movie. I have been interested in the Civil Rights movement for a very long time, and the Civil Rights movement within the context of everything else that was happening in the 1960s: Vietnam, assassinations of American leaders (the Kennedys, King, Malcolm X and others). I don't usually cry in movies (this has been documented), but I started to cry pretty early on and didn't stop (it wasn't a weepfest, but it was very emotional). The movie focuses on Martin Luther King, Jr., the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Council) and the voting rights movement in the South, specifically in Alabama. David Oyelowo is Martin Luther King, Jr., Tom Wilkinson is Lyndon B. Johnson; they are the leads in this very deep and talented cast. The pivotal event in the film is the march from Selma to Montgomery (capital of Alabama) to protest the multitude of voting restrictions for African Americans at the time (if you do not get absolutely spitting angry when Oprah Winfrey's character Annie Lee Cooper is denied her right to vote after answering the registrar's questions, then you're just not paying attention). The early part of the movie lays the background for the necessity of the march (the denial of Annie Lee Cooper's right to vote is part of that); the background is important, especially if the viewer is not really familiar with the Civil Rights movement. It also gives us an opportunity to see some of the dynamics within the SCLC and the conflict between the SCLC and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The idea of the march was to be nonviolent and peaceful, but the state troopers (sent by Governor George Wallace, played by Tim Roth) and the county sheriff had other ideas. Unfortunately for them, the violence was captured on television (this is before cable and the 24 hours news cycle) and shared around the country and world. Of course, there is a lot that happens between the opening scenes and the march, including visits to the White House by King, a conversation between Malcolm X and Coretta Scott King, and other events. I never felt overwhelmed by the information, and even though the movie was long in duration (two hours), I could have sat there a while longer. Director Ava DuVernay does a great job at pacing the movie and captures the crowd/action scenes with a visceral quality. There are a couple of original songs in the film and "Glory" by John Legend and Common is one of them, and it is nominated for Best Song. The movie (it is a movie) conveys the events of the time, the emotion of people fighting for their rights, does not shy away from the allegations of King's infidelities (which it could/would if it was a whitewashing of his legacy, and I don't think it is at all) or the conflicts within the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. Is it 100% accurate as might be told in a monograph on the subject? No, somethings are done for a dramatic purpose; Maureen Dowd wrote an article taking issue with LBJ's position in the movie on Civil Rights versus his position in real life; in real life LBJ was more sympathetic than portrayed in the movie (her article is worth reading because it gives food for thought). My own opinion on this is King had to have a place to voice his thoughts, desires for action, the frustration he and others were feeling; I think it was important to have that dialog with a white man. Who would that white man be? Wallace, a racist? He wouldn't have let King go off like he did. The county sheriff? That wouldn't have the impact. He needed to have this conversation with the most powerful man in the free world and that would be LBJ. That's just my opinion of how I understand moving a story along. This wasn't a documentary, just like Glory or  Mississippi Burning or Pearl Harbor were not documentaries. They are movies. They tell part of a story that may be 100% true and other parts are contrived. As a history major, I think it's important to get movies like this (well-told, well acted, thought provoking) out there and have discussions like Dowd and others have provoked. I mean, if a movie is totally inaccurate, that's a different story. But if you can get kids (or even grown ups) to watch a movie like this or Schindler's List, then you can have discussions that go further, read historical books about the topic. Some people hate history because it's so dry and boring (WHAT?), but if you can humanize it, and if Selma does anything it humanizes the people of the movement, Annie Lee Cooper, Cager Lee, John Lewis, and the others. The Civil Rights Movement precluded the Women's Rights Movement of the 1970s and the Gay Rights Movement in the late 1980s through today. We stand on the shoulders of those men and women, black and white, and we should not forget that.

1/17/15 Gone Girl, nominated Best Actress 2014

I do not even know where to start with Gone Girl but I'll try. I am not one of the many people who read the book and I intentionally did not read any of the reviews because I knew I would see it at some point, especially after hearing such great reviews of Rosamund Pike's performance. Rosamund Pike plays Amy Dunne, the inspiration for her parents' best-selling books featuring "Amazing Amy"; Amy is married to Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), who writes for a magazine, until he gets laid off. Early in the movie, we are led to believe that something awful has befallen Amy, and perhaps Nick is responsible. The movie is not a straight narrative, going from point A to point B; it's told from different perspectives and uses flashbacks. I would suggest paying attention (on occasion, I have been known to multi-task, but I can focus when necessary). I don't want to give anything away in case you haven't seen it because the suspense is imperative to the success of the movie, I think. For the first 45 minutes or so of the movie, I thought Pike was good, but not nomination worthy, and then about an hour into it, she flipped a switch. Wow. I was not expecting any of what happened next. She totally transformed, and was amazing. Between the actual story and the musical score (by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, which surprisingly was not nominated for an Oscar), I was a little freaked out and not sure how I was going to sleep that night. Even being a little wigged out, I still liked the movie, I thought it really kept you on your feet. I think The Best Actress category is a pretty tough one, having now seen three of the five movies, I really don't have an inkling. Now that I've seen the movie, I don't plan on reading the book (sorry Rach).

1/19/15 The Last Days, Best Documentary, 1998

The Last Days is a documentary focusing on five survivors of the Holocaust; all five survivors were from Hungary. They were all kids when they were sent to the camps and at the time of the documentary were in their 60s or 70s. They begin by telling their stories of growing up in their villages or town and how they (almost all of them) felt their Hungarian nationality was primary and their Jewishness was just a small part of who they were. In fact, when they started to hear stories from Polish or Czech refugees about what was happening in their hometowns, the Hungarian Jews were convinced that could not happen to them. Unfortunately, fascism reared its head in a most forceful way in the form of the Arrow Cross Party; the Arrow Cross were responsible for deporting and killing Jews. Raoul Wallenberg of Sweden saved many Hungarian Jews by giving them fake passports. The survivors provide vivid and detailed descriptions of their deportations and the intake process into the camps, how in some cases they were separated from their family members. All of the survivors in the movie go back to Hungary, some of them go back to the sites of their camps with their adult children; they meet their old neighbors. Returning to Hungary and the camps seems to give some 'closure' (not the best word) to survivors; in fact, a couple of them say they never need to come back. Documentaries like The Last Days are hard to watch and they should be, but they should also be watched, especially considering the rise of anti-Semitism and the continued existence of Holocaust deniers. The documentation of Holocaust survivors has been a singular goal of Steven Spielberg as part of the USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education.

Wild - The book by Cheryl Strayed was the basis for the 2014 movie with Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl (in an Oscar nominated role). I think it's a coin toss when you have a book that's made into a movie, sometimes I read the book first, sometimes I see the  movie, sometimes I don't read the book. In this case, I probably would not have read the book had I not seen the movie and really enjoyed it and been moved by Cheryl's story. I found them complimentary to one another, not one better than the other. I loved the movie for the incredible scenery and because Witherspoon gave a voice and embodiment of Cheryl, and also, Laura Dern gave Cheryl's mother Bobbi a voice as well. For me, because I saw the movie first, this helped me when I read the book to have a visual in my head. The book is more raw and has more details than the movie, because I think that's the beauty of a book. Bobbi's sudden illness and death were almost more palpable to me in the book than the film, and in fact, I was not sure I was going to get through the first chapter. But, as a friend of mine told me, the payoff was well worth the tears in the first 50 pages or so. Obviously, the book (or any other book like Foxcatcher or Unbroken (which I'm reading now) will have more information, and movies compress events and often make composite characters to facilitate the film, but in this case, I don't think it hurts the movie, and you can find the depth in the book.

1/24/15 Ida, nominated for Best Foreign Film, Poland, Best Cinematography 2014

I kind of feel bad, but I didn't like this movie, even though I wanted to, and you would think it would be right up my alley. The movie ended and I said something like "What a f*&()*) awful movie" or words to that effect. Ida is set in post World War II Poland, early 1960s, and we first meet Ida in a convent where she is preparing to take her vows as a nun. That is until the prioress tells Ida that they have finally heard from her one living relative, an aunt, and Ida is encouraged, nay told, to go and meet her. At first I thought the aunt was a prostitute, but apparently she was not, she was a judge. Aunt Wanda is not one for sentimentality, and blurts out that Ida is Jewish. After a false start, the two start out on a quest to locate the bodies of Ida's parents, which takes Ida back to the village where she was born. Wanda was very closely associated with the Stalinist regime and seemed possessed by a deep melancholia or something which keeps her in between cynicism and morbidness. The movie is full of long silences and pauses, which normally don't bother me, but here it just seemed annoying. It is a beautiful film, the black, white and grays are very powerful, but otherwise, I could have cared less, about Ida or her aunt (I might have been more interested in a movie about Wanda and the complexities of her life, which were based on a real person). It seemed to me that the idea that Ida was Jewish was just a gimmick. The only blessing is the movie was less than 90 minutes.

1/24/15 Gary Louris, Northfield Arts Guild

In September, I had the opportunity to indulge my recent love of the Jayhawks at the First Avenue in Minneapolis. I'd been waiting ever since for a solo date by Gary Louris, lead singer and main writer for the band. Of course, it would be in January in Northfield, MN (read: country), but it was on a Saturday night, and as luck would have it, the East Coast was getting all of our snow. So, I headed down the road, it's really not that far. A very good friend of mine is from Northfield and told me the venue was small. I had no idea how small "small" was until I got there. The seating capacity might have been 100, tops and I was in the very last row and it was still one of the best seats I've had at a concert. I did feel like some outsider, since I think almost everyone in the theater was from Northfield or Rice County at large. Terry Vanderwalker opened; Terry is a local guy, and I was actually sitting next to his wife, and is (was?) in a band called The Big Wu which is known around Minnesota. Then Gary Louris came on and played a few Jayhawks songs and then brought out Kraig Johnson, also of the Jayhawks, to play guitar and sing. You could tell these guys have known each other a long time, and they also just got back from a West Coast trip, so they seemed a little loopy (in a good way); they had great banter with each other and the audience. There were Jayhawks songs, songs Gary wrote with other people, including the Dixie Chicks and stuff from his own solo material. It was a fun night at the Northfield Arts Guild.

1/25/15 Whiplash, nominated Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Sound Mixing, 2014

This movie was intense, not intense in the way Selma or Gone Girl were intense, maybe percussive is a better way to describe it, especially since the drums are another character in the story. Andrew (Miles Teller) is a first year student at the most prestigious music conservatory in the country, and he aspires to join the elite jazz band led by the sadistic Terence Fletcher (Oscar nominated J.K. Simmons). Andrew gets his chance, but that doesn't mean things get any easier for him, and the minute he shows any flash of confidence or heaven forbid, bravura, Fletcher knocks him down. It's nothing personal, Fletcher is pretty brutal to everyone. Andrew is driven and instead of being discouraged, he practices harder, much to his father's chagrin (his dad is played by Paul Reiser). As a viewer, you learn pretty quickly not to get too comfortable with Andrew's successes, and you kind of hold your breath, waiting for something else to happen. There comes a point near the end of the movie where Andrew has the chance to walk away from Fletcher, move on, take a different path, and he does not; I began to think that Fletcher may have been a sadist, but Andrew was pretty close to a masochist, and maybe they belong together. If you remember J.K. Simmons from his role as J.J. Jamison from the Toby McGuire Spiderman franchise, you are very well aware that he can be blusterous, and in Whiplash he takes it up a notch, but yet is a little more restrained; you knew J.J. was just blowing off steam and he would never really do anything, but with Fletcher, you're not sure. I liked the movie, I don't know if I loved it, but J.K. Simmons is powerful and he would be vote for Best Supporting Actor with Edward Norton. The characters that they play impacted and informed what the main characters did. I'm not a big band/jazz enthusiast, so I have no idea if the music was spot on in the genre, but I liked a couple of the songs/pieces and may get some Buddy Rich or Charlie Parker from the library.

1/25/15 Finding Vivian Maier, nominated Best Documentary Feature, 2014

Everyone likes a good mystery, including the Academy (Searching for Sugarman from a couple of years ago), so I was going to see this whether or not it was nominated. John Maloof was looking for photographs of Chicago for a project he was working on, so he bought a box of photos from an auction. What he found led him to buy more boxes of photos, negatives and film, all by a nanny named Vivian Maier who died in 2009, not leaving any documentation or narrative other than her photos and bits of receipts and bric a brac, and a small group of former employers. Maloof becomes obsessed with learning more about Vivian, even tracing her family in the French Alps. Vivian comes across as a complex person, not quite the Mary Poppins-type. The photographs are captivating and very good, and several professional photographers opine that she may have become quite well-known had she ever published her work or gave an exhibit. I enjoyed the film and would be interested in a book or exhibit of her photographs, but something in the documentary didn't quite fill me with the joy, passion, anger or whatever strong emotion I like to get from a documentary. I think it was because we never 'find' Vivian the way we 'found' Sugarman; we could enjoy Rodriguez's resurgence with him in a way we cannot with Vivian. I'm guessing based on past documentary winners this may lose out to the documentary on Edward Snowden (Citizenfour) or the documentary on the Vietnam War.

Spanning over seven decades from Sunrise to Breakfast at Tiffany's to Beetlejuice

Yes, it was a weekend filled with variety and not a television series in the batch. There is really something for everyone in this group of movies.

6/7/14 Sunrise, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Cinematography, Best Unique and Artistic Production, 1927 (awarded 1929), #82 on AFI Top 100 Films, National Film Registry

It's been a while since I have reached back into the archives, but I thought it was time. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (very melodramatic) was released in 1927, but due to the different scheduling for the early years of the Academy Awards, it did not receive its three awards until 1929. Two of the three awards have since been changed: originally the Best Actress and Actor Awards were for an actor's performance for that year, so Janet Gaynor won for her performances in Sunrise, Seventh Heaven and Street Angel. Best Unique and Artistic Production was only awarded for the first Academy Awards. So, now that the history lesson is over, on to the movie. German director. F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu) directed this film that starred Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien, known only as The Wife and The Man, respectively. The movie opens with The Man stepping out on The Wife with The Woman from The City (the lack of character names is not uncommon in silent films, and in this case is meant to show the universality of the characters and the story). The Man is smitten by this woman of easy virtue and is almost persuaded to help his wife accidentally drown. The Man goes through various emotions, lust, love, regret among them, as he and his wife get reacquainted and fall in love again. The Man and Wife are from the country, which seems like an idyllic and pure place which has been 'contaminated' by The Woman from The City and her loose ways. Some of the drama or melodrama seems very over the top, very exaggerated, which is another common theme in silent movies; in this movie there are actually very few intertitles used, the viewer must rely on the emoting of the characters to infer the what is going on and move the story along. This was a little hard for me at first, but it works, and the climax of the movie was very gripping and I was surprised by the ending. It was very good storytelling. Also, this wasn't really silent, there is actually sound that was recorded as part of them film, horns honking, crowds yelling, wind blowing, but no talking among the characters. Silent films are not for everyone, and while there are others I would recommend (Gold Rush, City Lights, Seventh Heaven) before this one, this still deserves a look.

6/7/14 Beetlejuice, Best Makeup, 1988

I may be the only person in America in my age group who had never seen Beetlejuice, just not my thing, I guess. I have heard about it, seen clips, heard "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice", but really had no idea. I find I have this ambiguous feeling quite a bit with Tim Burton movies, when he is good, I think he is really good, and then, when he is not, well, kiss 90 minutes and $10 goodbye. Michael Keaton stars as Beetlejuice an annoying, 'i-want-to-punch-you-in-the-face' kind of character; Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis are Adam and Barbara Maitland, recently passed over into the next world, also known as 'recently deceased'. Adam and Barbara are not having an easy time in their new lives, still living in their dream house as ghosts, while a new family, the Deetzes (Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones and Winona Ryder) move in and take over. The movie is mostly about Adam and Barbara's attempts to get rid of the Deetzes and then get rid of Beetlejuice. There are some great scenes here, one of my favorite is the dancing scene, with the living humans being made to dance to 'Dayo'. It's pretty funny. Michael Keaton is crazy as Beetlejuice (if this was made ten years later, it might have been played by Jim Carrey); he totally owns the makeup, crazy hair and costume. He is obnoxious, which is exactly the point. The movie won for Best Makeup and there wasn't really a lot of competition for this year (that's not taking away from it, but usually there is something you can compare it too and the two others in the category didn't have a chance: Coming to America and Scrooged).

6/7/14 The Prince of Egypt, Best Original Song, 1998

I'm a sucker for a good Exodus story, seriously, the story of Moses was one of my favorites growing up (that and Solomon, but I digress). The Prince of Egypt is about Moses, his relationship with Rameses, and the eventual exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt. Val Kilmer is the voice of adult Moses, Ralph Fiennes is Rameses, Patrick Stewart is the voice of Rameses and Moses's father, Seti (Moses's adoptive father); Sandra Bullock and Jeff Goldblum are Moses's sister and brother, so definitely an all-star cast. There are not a lot of surprises, I mean the story is several thousands of years old, how many surprises could there be? But I thought focusing on the relationship of Moses and Rameses was different than in The Ten Commandments, and Kilmer and Fiennes were really good. I enjoyed the movie and if you haven't watched it with your kids (or without kids), it might be fun to put on around Passover time. It's old school animation, as in hand drawn and not CGI, so I liked it for that fact. It won the award for Best Original Song ("When you Believe" sung most notably by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston), and while not a lot of the other songs stick in my head, I guess my personal favorite would have been "That'll Do Babe" by Randy Newman, sung by Peter Gabriel.

6/8/14 Breakfast at Tiffany's, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, National Film Registry, 1961

I have some mixed feelings about this classic film starring the elegant Audrey Hepburn, and I think they are of my own making. I read the book by Truman Capote only a day before I watched the movie. Usually it's years or months between reading the book and seeing the movie or vice versa, so everything was pretty fresh in the old noggin. Breakfast at Tiffany's is an iconic movie, people who have not seen it have heard of Holly Golightly (Hepburn's character), heard the song "Moon River" (the movie won for Best Original Song with "Moon River" which was written by Johnny Mercer and Cleveland's own, Henry Mancini), are familiar with the fashion of the film, but I remember watching it for the first time years ago and not liking it, not liking Holly, not understanding the fuss (sometimes when a film is so "locked" into a period it does not translate well to a generations after it). I only wanted to watch it again so I could give a fair report to you, and then I thought, hell, I should read the book, a novella really, by Capote. Briefly, Hepburn plays Holly Golightly, a woman of some sophistication and dubious income; Holly is really all about Holly and only casually concerned about those around her, she's flighty and impetuous. Holly encounters her new neighbor, whom she calls 'Fred' but his name is Paul Varjak, played by George Peppard (younger audiences may know him as Hannibal Smith from "The A-Team"). The other major character is Manhattan (it may seem odd that I keep including cities as characters, but sometimes, they really are), but it's hard to imagine this story taking place anywhere else. The movie follows Holly and her somewhat mysterious background and friendships with a variety of men, her perplexing relationship with Paul, and Paul's relationship with Emily Failenson (played by Patricia Neal). Blake Edwards (of Pink Panther fame as well as The Great Race and many others) directed and injected some of his humor into the film by using Mickey Rooney in the role of one of Holly's other neighbors, Mr. Yunioshi and greatly exaggerating stereotypical traits of someone of Japanese heritage (in the book, I did not get the sense that there was any of that and the role of Yunioshi was pretty minimal). Fifty years later, Rooney's portrayal seemed so obviously out of touch and offensive, but at the time of filming, Edwards said he didn't think of it like that and just wanted to be funny. As Holly and Paul's friendship evolves, they also have quarrels because Paul must be the practical one and not so loosey-goosey. There are several times the story and the movie diverge and once or twice, they are pretty big divergences, in fact, the ending in the movie is SO different from the book (I was told by a friend of mine this is actually a Seinfeld episode). Here is my struggle: I actually really liked the novella so much better than the movie (and the other short stories in this collection), but I love Hepburn as well. Can glamour ooze? Is that oxymoronic? Because she just walks onto the screen and nothing else matters. I didn't dislike the movie as much as I did the first time, I think I had a better understanding of Holly's personality and her motivation for doing things. You can probably watch the movie and not read the book and be perfectly content, but because Capote's writing is so good, watch the movie and then wait a few months and read the book.

6/8/14 Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, Best Documentary, 2000

Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport is a very powerful and moving documentary about the 10,000 children from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia who were sent to England in the late 1930s to escape the grasp of the Nazis and almost guaranteed annihilation. The movie interviews almost a dozen 'kinder' about their experience, leaving Europe and their families, where they were ostracized, harassed and threatened to a country where they didn't speak the language, had to learn about a new culture, and sometimes still harassed but not to the extent they were in their homeland, they also faced the burden of trying to get their parents out, and later knowing that their parents were in danger. These survivors (and they are survivors) are older now, many in their 70s and 80s, but their memories are clear and vivid as they tell about the last time they saw their parents, how they felt when they met their first (sometimes not the last) foster families, what it was like to learn English. Very often stories from the Holocaust stories focus on the camps and life in the ghettos, there are not very many movies about these children and the people who took them in (perhaps most famous among them is Sir Richard Attenborough's family who took in two sisters), so this is definitely worth your time to hear this part of history. The stories have one thing in common, the children were sent to England, but after that and before that, their narratives are unique: the orphan who pretty much raised himself, then was deported, then came back to fight for Britain; the young girl who was sent from family to family, and later was able to bring her parents to England; the sister and brother who convinced their uncle to bring their baby sister over; the young girl whose father was so desperate not to be separated from his daughter that he pulled her off of the train, almost guaranteeing she would be sent to a concentration camp. I will say - this one made me cry.

Post script: Monuments Men is now available on DVD, and as a reminder, that movie looks at the US-led efforts to recover works of art stolen by the Nazis. I recently finished a book that examines the period when the art was stolen, focusing on a particular piece of art by Gustav Klimt, known as "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer" or "The Lady in Gold" (this is also the name of the book by Anne-Marie O'Connor). The book transports us back to late 19th century and early 20th century Vienna, Austria, and the art movement known as "The Secessionist Movement", and the intellectual salons and gatherings hosted and supported by the Viennese Jewish community, focusing on Klimt's painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer and her family. O'Connor traces the lineage of several of Klimt's paintings as they went from being part of the Bloch-Bauer family to being confiscated or forcibly donated to the state of Austria. O'Connor follows the fortunes or misfortunes of the Bloch-Bauer family as some were able to emigrate to America or neutral or Allied countries, and others were not so lucky. There is a great twist at the end, and since this is a true story, the ending is even more moving. What I liked about this book as a bookend to Monuments Men is that it tells the story of the people who had the art, and it wasn't just about paintings, it was about how the paintings or sculptures were taken and that there were people at the other end of those paintings, not some immobile institution (it seems to me that there was only a very vague nod to the people who had the art stolen from them in the movie when Matt Damon returns a painting to an empty house), it adds a level of humanity that wasn't quite there in the movie (that wasn't its purpose, so I'm not criticizing, just pointing it out).

Still catching up - Before Midnight, Frozen and more

I'd like to blame spring fever for my sloth and delay in writing, but that would be false (it's still cold here) and lazy. I am now writing almost a week later and I'm not sure what I'll write or how it will turn out. I don't think I've had writer's block this bad. So, if this is not your favorite post, I'll totally understand.

March 2014, Before Midnight, nominated for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), 2013

Heaven help me, if they make another movie in this series I'll going to do something drastic, and if that movie gets nominated for an Oscar, I might have to re-evaluate everything. If you haven't seen the other two movies, congratulations, I don't know if you need to, but there are two earlier movies that set us up for this talkfest. It seems to me to have pretensions of being Bergmanesque and pseudo-intellectual. I don't mind intellectual movies, but you need to have the actors to carry off the heavy dialogue, and I'm sorry but Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy aren't those actors. I really don't have a lot more on this. But you have been warned.


3/22/2014, Frozen, Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, 2013

I had wanted to see Frozen but I just could not squeeze it in amongst all the other movies I needed to watch before the Oscars, so I just watched it last week. What a great movie. I really did enjoy it. It's based on the Hans Christian Andersen story "The Snow Queen" and is about Elsa, who has powers to freeze things and who is the next in line to inherit the throne of Arendelle, and her younger sister, Anna. Elsa has been forced to hide away to keep her ability secret so people don't think she's a witch. Elsa is voiced by Idina Menzel, who also sang the Oscar-winning song "Let it Go", which if you did not see her perform that live on the Oscar telecast, you missed something amazing. See if you can find it on YouTube.Kristen Bell is Anna. Elsa opens the kingdom to celebrate her coronation, which is cause for great celebration, until she and Anna have a fight and Elsa's powers come out in full force, and Elsa runs away. Anna and her new friend, Kristoff, go looking for Elsa. There's more adventure, singing, trolls and a talking snowman, and a person with malice in his heart, but I can't tell you who. It's a great movie with strong female characters, but it's not just a movie for girls, or so what if it is? For all the movies that have been geared towards boys over the years, is it really terrible to have one that might be aimed at girls? Last year's Brave also had a girl as its central character. I say "Girl Power".

3/22/2014 Rush, not nominated, 2013

Rush is about the rivalry between James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl), two Formula One race car drivers from the early and mid 1970s, directed by Ron Howard. The two men are set up as being poles apart: Hunt is a womanizer, reckless, and not very disciplined, whereas Lauda is controlled, disciplined and analytical (some things I read said these differences were emphasized to make a better story). The movie builds to a climax when the two men are racing and Lauda crashes and suffers severe burns to his face and his lungs. We then see Lauda undergoing painful treatments to clear out his lungs and rehabilitate himself so he can get back to racing. He uses Hunt as an inspiration.

I thought it was interesting that the movie was not nominated for any Oscars, but Daniel Bruhel was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor; the Golden Globes are voted on by members of the Hollywood Foreign Press, and watching the movie I think I know why - this was a very European movie. It may have been directed by a quintessential American director, Ron Howard, but the subject matter was most definitely European, and there were more than a few subtitles. I know very little about car racing, but in America, I don't think Formula One racing is as popular as it is in Europe and perhaps Asia; pretty much most people know Chris Hemsworth as Thor, but the I don't think many people in America have heard of Daniel Bruhl. I liked the movie, you know, me and sports movies (I don't want to argue if racing is a sport, I'm not up to it), but I felt something was missing, even as I think the movie was too long. I admired Lauda's determination and focus, but I could not relate to him as a character. Hunt seemed like a very fun-loving guy, and my friend enjoyed watching Chris Hemsworth, so all in all, I guess it was a good night.

3/23/2014, I'm Still Here

I'm Still Here is a 2005 documentary that presents readings of the diaries of young Jews as the Holocaust was spreading across Europe. It was an MTV presentation and is only 48 minutes long. The young men and women share their feelings and observations of the events of the 1930s and 1940s, expressing fear, anger, sadness and hope. It's not as dramatic or shocking as some Holocaust documentaries or movies, so it may be easier to watch (easier is probably not the right word; maybe 'less shocking'). I would recommend watching it with your teenagers (or if you don't have kids, just watch it).

Continuing with my favorite method of distracting myself from watching movies, I've been watching a few series lately, including The Vikings, the Newsroom and the latest season of Downton Abbey. I liked The Vikings mainly because that is a period of history that has interested me for many years and I have been to the Viking Museum in Roskilde, Denmark (and not at all because I live in Minnesota and our football team is the Vikings). It's based on Vikings and their mythology and mixes the two. I'm looking forward to Season 2. The Newsroom was created by Aaron Sorkin (who also created The West Wing) and stars Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy, television anchor for a fictional news organization; Emily Mortimer as MacKenzie McHale, his new executive producer and former girlfriend and Sam Waterston as Charlie Skinner, president of the network. If you watched The West Wing you won't be surprised by the political slant and occasional pontificating, and you also won't be disappointed by the fast paced and witty dialogue and great acting. Sam Waterston is my favorite; I loved him in Law and Order (the ORIGINAL) and he's as good here, he seems to be enjoying his lines and the profanities flow out of his mouth as easy as you please.

It is my most sincere goal to find my discipline and motivation in the next week because I'm out of renewal options for the movies I have at home. And as luck would have it, spring may be arriving this week.

Peace out

2014 Oscar Night proving that Gravity is more than just theoretical

Prologue:
This is taking it right down to the wire, but it just adds to the excitement, right? As of this afternoon, I have seen 57 of the 72 nominees. I'm not sure I can put together a good review(s) in the next 51 minutes, so I'd rather not try. I will say that I watched the five nominated animated shorts today and my personal favorite is Mr. Hublot from France and Luxembourg; if that doesn't win, I hope that Room on the Broom does. I also saw the nominated documentary Cutie and the Boxer and while I found it interesting, I thought it would have been better as a documentary short film, and I don't think it will win. Star Trek: Into the Darkness was 20 minutes longer than it needed to be, in my opinion, and not my favorite movie ever. It was nominated in the visual effects category and if it wasn't for Gravity this year, it might win. It is visually impressive and has some great action; there is a reason it wasn't nominated for any acting awards.

Predictions:
This is more for fun since I have had a few people ask me. I won't do all the categories, but here are a few of my picks:

Best Picture: Twelve Years a Slave (I think the only thing that can beat it is Gravity)
Best Director: Steve McQueen (again, I think Alfonso Cuaron - Gravity is the only other movie that could pull it out)
Best Actor: I think it's between Matthew McConaughey and Leonardo DiCaprio, but I think Chiwetel Ejiofor should be getting talked about a lot more (I pick McConaughey)
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyongo'o - Twelve Years a Slave, she was amazing in this role

I am now ready for the festivities to start. Just a warning, I will whine if it goes too long because I need to go to work tomorrow morning.

The countdown: four minutes to go.

And...we're off. Already it's less tense than the fiasco last year. No silly song and dance number (yet).

Best Supporting Actor is the first category. Jared Leto wins for Dallas Buyers Club. It was a great performance and a really great movie.

Jim Carrey is presenting for something. I'm not sure what yet; he's doing a Bruce Dern impression. He is pretty funny when he isn't obnoxious. Okay, so he wasn't actually presenting, but just did a bit on animated heroes. AND THAT'S why the Oscars go so long.

Pharrell Williams is performing "Happy" from Despicable Me in that ridiculous hat. The song is infectious, though. He even got Meryl Streep shaking it. That might have been my favorite part of the movie.

The award for costume design is next, being presented by Samuel L. Jackson and Naomi Watts. I think The Great Gatsby will win. And I was right. Two for two. The movie was terribly long and not very good, but it really looked good. I think I blogged about it, but for the life of me, I don't know where it is. Visually, it is incredible, full of color. Nice short speech.

Makeup and hairstyling is next. No commercials. Bad Grandpa winning would justify me seeing it in the theater. Dallas Buyers Club wins again. I think it was the transformation of Jared Leto (primarily), but Matthew McConaughey also did not look like Matthew McConaughey at all.

Harrison Ford is presenting the first three nominees for Best Picture: American Hustle, Dallas Buyers Club and The Wolf of Wall Street (still haven't seen that one, but it's like 10 hours long).

Kim Novak and Matthew McConaughey are presenting for the Best Animated Short, which I just saw today. Mr. Hublot was my pick and it just won. They were all pretty good though and hopefully you can catch them in the theater. Now the Best Animated Feature film.....I think it's going to be one of the ones I have not seen yet. Frozen won; I'm surprised, but not surprised. I really thought The Wind Rises would win. Maybe Frozen will stay in the theaters a little longer so I can see it in the theater.

So now Sally Field is doing a tribute to the real, everyday heroes that have been portrayed in film. That's great, but there are still a lot of categories to go, so let's get to them please.

Visual Effects is the next category. I've seen everything except Gravity. Let's see who wins. I pick Gravity, just based on the buzz. Gravity wins. I think that was kind of a no-brainer.

Karen O is performing the song from Her, "The Moon Song", another one of the 'big' movies I haven't seen yet. Karen O performed a mind-blowing version of "The Immigrant Song" for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Ooh, the short films are next. I love them. Best Live Action Short Films are next. This is a tough call. I think Helium will win. And...Helium wins. Best Documentary Short Films are up. This is even harder than the Live Action category. I hope The Lady in Number 6 wins. And it just did. God bless Alice Herz Sommer. Please find some of her videos on youtube or see this movie. You will not regret it.

I have seen most of the documentary films, except for The Square; they are an interesting collection, that's for sure. My personal favorite is Twenty Feet from Stardom, which just won. Twenty Feet from Stardom is about the back up singers that make pop and rock music hum. Darlene Love is on stage, finally getting her moment in the spotlight and she breaks into song, and gets a standing ovation. She only recognized the female back up singers, but there are some male back up singers that are in the documentary as well in the special features.

Kevin Spacey is talking about the Governor's Award recipients, including Angela Lansbury (who has done so much more than Murder, She Wrote); Steve Martin; Piero Tosi who is a costume designer; the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award to Angelina Jolie. The Governor's Awards were held a few months ago.

Best Foreign Film is up now and I have only seen one. Those are pretty tough. They're on my NetFlix list. The only one I saw is The Hunt, which was pretty good and a well-told story. The Great Beauty, from Italy, won. I saw a brief clip of that, but I have no idea what it's about. I think the director just thanked Diego Maradona who is a football/soccer player. Maybe I didn't hear that quite right.

Tyler Perry is introducing three more of the Best Picture nominees, Nebraska, Her, and Gravity. I don't think Nebraska will win any of the major awards, but it would be so cool if it did. There are still fourteen awards to go. Ellen just walked out in a bright white suit and introduced Brad Pitt. Brad is introducing U2 to sing "No Ordinary Love" from the film Long Walk to Freedom. I haven't seen the film or heard the song yet. I don't know if the original version is acoustic, but that's how they're doing it tonight. Larry Mullen is rocking it on the drums. I think this one will probably win, more because of the power of Mandela than it being the best song from a film (it's a good song, but I think "Happy" should win).

Ellen is walking through the audience and now trying to take a group photo including Meryl Streep, Julie Roberts, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and a bunch more. They are going to try to get it re-tweeted. Much funnier and less mean-spirited show than last year.

Sound awards are next, with Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Charlize Theron presenting, a little hitch in the cue cards (or the technical equivalent). Sound Mixing is first, then Sound Editing. Gravity wins for Sound Mixing. Sound Editing is the only nomination for All is Lost. Gravity wins again.

Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained and Inglorious Basterds), he practically ran out on stage, is presenting for Best Supporting Actress. My pick has been Lupita Nyongo'o since I saw 12 Years a Slave. Julia Roberts was really good in August: Osage County and Sally Hawkins in Blue Jasmine. Lupita Nyongo'o just won. Amazing, and she gets a hug from Liza Minnelli and gets a standing ovation. I think everyone was pulling for her, she's been so fun to watch on all the awards this year. It looked like Benedict Cumberbatch has tears in his eyes (he was also in the film). The theme from "Willy Wonka" is playing as she leaves the stage.

Ellen actually ordered pizza and is delivering it through the audience. There isn't going to be enough for everyone.

Amy Adams (love her) and Bill Murray (mostly love him) are presenting the Best Cinematography award; my pick is The Grandmaster but it will probably be Gravity again. And Billy Murray sneaks in a tribute to Harold Ramis who passed away this week. Guess who? Gravity. Damn, I kind of wish I had squeezed that in with all my frantic movie viewing the past months.

Film editing is the next category (my snarky favorite category because some movies are still too damn long). I picked Captain Phillips because I do feel that the editing really kept the guessing, especially at the end. Oh hell, it's Gravity again. Why bother? Alfonso Cuaron got cut off, but I'm sure he'll get another chance at some point tonight.

Oh, there is a tribute to The Wizard of Oz tonight by Whoopi Goldberg; it's the 75th anniversary of one of my childhood touchstones. There's a story to tell, but I'll save it for my memoir. Judy Garland's 'kids' are in the audience: Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft, and Joey Luft. Pink is singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". I love this movie. Might be time to see it again. Nice job. Judy would have been proud.

Nine awards to go (not to be a killjoy or anything) and it's 9:40 central time; tomorrow morning is going to come too soon.

Ellen just comes out as Glinda the Good Witch. Awesome.

I'm going to go on a limb and say that Gravity will win for Production Design. Just a guess. The other possibility is The Great Gatsby. Sonofabitch. It was The Great Gatsby.

Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs - terrific movie and performance) is introducing the In Memoriam segment. Bette Midler singing "The Wind Beneath My Wings" after the montage. In a strange way, I like this part the best because it reminds me of contributions of people that sometimes have been forgotten or overlooked by newer audiences.

And Goldie Hawn is now introducing the last group of Best Picture nominees, Philomena, Captain Phillips, and 12 Years a Slave. These are some good movies, and good books, too.

John Travolta introducing Idina Menzel ("Wicked"), but I didn't understand what he said at all. She is singing the song from Frozen, "Let it Go". Man, she's got a set of pipes. I heard her sing in "Chess", but wow, she's incredible. With someone like her who can actually sing, how come there are so many crap performances out there with people who can't sing worth beans? Just a random question.

The Original Score is being presented by Jamie Foxx and Jessica Biel, I'm not sure what is happening. If Jamie is ad-libbing or what. I picked Gravity just because that seems to be the trend. And Gravity wins. Saving Mr. Banks was nominated, and I feel that film kind of got the shaft, but I think that may be because Mary Poppins is one of my favorite movies. I haven't seen The Book Thief which was also nominated. It's on the list though.

Now we finally come to the Original Song; who will win since Gravity isn't nominated? dun-dun-dun: "Let It Go" from Frozen, I did not see that coming, and yet after Idina's performance, totally deserved.

I am getting a cramp in my fingers. My left hand is starting to turn into a claw. Six more awards. This is not going to be over before 11:00. Ellen, I love you, but please wrap this up. I really should have taken tomorrow off.

The writing awards presented by Robert DeNiro and Penelope Cruz; first is the Best Adapted Screenplay, and my pick is 12 Years a Slave but Philomena could win too, and I'd be happy. 12 Years a Slave won. I am trying to find the book and I believe it's available online but I would like to actually read the hard copy. As I mentioned, Philomena is a book and it actually tells a different side of the story than the movie does, so it's well worth reading. For the original screenplay I picked Dallas Buyers Club, and since Gravity isn't nominated, it's possible. Nope, Her by Spike Jonze won. Before Midnight was also nominated and I had every intention of watching that this weekend, but it didn't happen. I felt bad, and then I remembered, I hated the two earlier movies in this trilogy and got over my angst pretty fast. I hope this is the last one, although as my friend and I were joking, they could do 'Before Daylight Savings Time' and variations on that theme.

Angelina Jolie and Sidney Poitier get a standing ovation as they present Best Director. He is wonderful, if you have not seen him in To Sir, With Love, The Heat of the Night, Guess Who is Coming to Dinner and so many others, you really should try. Best Director I have as Steve McQueen, but Alfonso Cuaron wins for....Gravity. He had a great acceptance speech, I think from either the Golden Globes or SAG awards.

(sigh) Daniel Day-Lewis is presenting Best Actress, and he's doing it as himself, not as Abraham Lincoln, although that would be kind of cool. I think Cate Blanchett is going to win for Blue Jasmine based on the previous awards; Meryl Streep was powerful as Violet in August: Osage County, but I don't think this will be her fourth Oscar, and I think Judi Dench is in a category with some great actresses in great roles this year. Sandra Bullock is nominated for Gravity, but strangely there hasn't been a lot of chatter around that. Cate Blanchett wins. I did like Blue Jasmine and she captured the essence of a narcissistic clueless woman of 21st century financial greed. Great speech from Cate on the power of women in cinema, but it's late and I want to go to bed.

Three hours and counting. Jennifer Lawrence will present the Best Actor award. Christian Bale should win for the risks he took with his hair, but I don't think that's going to happen. It's Leo or Matthew, I think. Chiwetel Ejiofor is great in 12 Years a Slave and if you can, try and see Kinky Boots. And Matthew McConaughey wins. He reminds me of someone every time I see him, but for the life of me I cannot put my finger on it. Very cool speech.

Ok, so we are now waiting for the Best Picture. Gravity? 12 Years a Slave? or a dark horse? I guess Will Smith, from that blockbuster, Razzy Winner, After Earth is presenting the award. The timing is ironic, I think. YES!! 12 Years a Slave wins for Best Picture! Super awesome! Wonderful. Steve McQueen didn't win Best Director. I think we'll see more from him.

That's it. We made it. Three and a half hours later, 72 films. See you next year.