Special: If I Voted for the Oscars

I don't vote for the Oscars. As if you didn't know that. I will probably never vote for the Oscars, though I  wish someday I might have the career to allow me to do that. Plus I don't necessarily agree with all they have to stand for. I read a really good article from New York magazine (read it here) describing how the Oscars work, and how rather than giving the award to the "Best" they often give it to who would create the "Best Story Arc" or who's career deserves the award, rather than who actually was the best actor or actress. It's all part of the Hollywood schlitz and glitz, and even though I might not agree with it, it's how it works. So for tonight's event, I'm going to say who I would've picked. Not who I think is going to win, and not even a will win/should win thing. Who I would've voted for the big awards, if I picked soley based on what I saw and watched. 

BEST PICTURE:

"Avatar"

For me, this was the best movie going experience of the year. Maybe it's not the best film I saw (that would have to be either "Up" or "Precious") but it was the best film I watched that took me away to another place. I go to movies to get taken away and to forget about being in a movie theater, and for the three hours of "Avatar" I was on another planet, totally absorbed into what was happening. Best Picture of the year for sure. And I would also probably vote for James Cameron as Best Director too, for having the vision to do what he did here.





BEST ACTOR:
Colin Firth "A Single Man"

The most moving performance of the year. He was in every single scene, every moment, and he was always present in the heartbreak and pain the character was feeling. Just seeing him in "Mamma Mia!" and then this? Complete difference.



BEST ACTRESS:
Gabourey Sidibe "Precious"

This was her first movie? Ridiculous. I would've never guessed if I hadn't known. And to see her in real life, and how buoyant and bubbly and total opposite from Precious she is, she is a real actress.






BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Chrisoph Waltz "Inglouorious Basterds"

Terrifying and vicious, and gentle and funny. Waltz was crazy good in this movie. He brought a completely new take to the role of a villainous Nazi.






BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Mo'Nique "Precious"

I remember watching Mo'Nique on Showtime at the Apollo. Never did I think she had it in her to portray a role like this. Phenomenal.

All Time Favorites: A League of Their Own

I've decided to slowly but surely attack some of my all time favorite movies on this blog to give the four readers a true taste of what movies I love and adore in a longer format with videos and quotes and all sorts of goodies. I know you're all wicked excited for this so let's get started. Why not start with a movie that's been a favorite of mine for a long time? In fact, I don't remember the first time I saw this movie I saw it so long ago. "A League of Their Own" was released way back in the olden days of 1992 when I had tracks shaved into my hair and wore big pants with elastic at the waist and ankles. How is this any different from today?

There are not many movies I can watch over and over and over again and still like them, let alone laugh at them, but "A League of Their Own" is one of those movies. Unlike the schlock her brother Gary directs, Penny Marshall is able to create a film here that not only looks appropriate for time period the film is set in (1940) as well as features contemporary humor, but has somehow created a film that doesn't appear to look dated by today's standards and still hold up in the funny department. To me, Marla Hooch is one the funniest characters in a movie I've ever seen. Kudos to actress Megan Cavanagh to creating a classic, homely as all get out character that makes me howl with laughter with her drunk rendition of "It Had to Be You" or her awkward shuffling/dancing in the mandatory etiquette classes all the girls have to take.

Though Cavanagh nearly steals the film for me, the entire cast is terrific. I can't believe Tom Hanks did this movie, "Philadelphia," and "Forrest Gump" in a row. Could he have taken three more different parts in a row? Not possible. His pissing scene in this is classic - never mind when he delivers the now infamous "There's no crying in baseball!" line. Perfection. And then there's Madonna! Can you believe Madonna is good in this movie? I am fan of her music for sure but as an actress she is much more of a miss than a hit. Tolerable and impressive in "Evita" sure, but she seems to shine in "A League of Their Own" in a supporting role as All the Way Mae. She should have taken more parts like this one. Rosie O'Donnell stars as Mae's best friend, Doris, and I think this movie might have been my first exposure to Rosie. She delivers some classic one liners in her Rosie fashion, and her and Madonna are a joy to watch together.

Geena Davis and Lori Petty are Dottie and Kit, respectively, and for those who haven't seen the movie, the characters whom the story follows for the most part. They are playing in a local women's league and working on their family farm when a scout (played by a hysterical Jon Lovitz who zings one zinger after another in this) shows up and recruits them for the new All American Girl Professional Baseball League. They of course, are accepted to the Rockford Peaches and go on a sisterly journey through one tumultuous season of baseball. The plot moves at a brisk pace, with no dull spots, and the baseball scenes are a thrill to watch. And even though as a youngster the ending of the movie always bothered me because (SPOILER ALERT) I wanted the Rockford Peaches to win the series, and they don't, but looking back on it now, I think it sets up for the perfect happy ending. Sidenote, how did they possibly cast a woman who looks so much like an older Geena Davis to play Old Dottie? It may be the best Old Person to Young Person casting I've ever seen in a movie. So much so, as a kid I thought it was Geena Davis in makeup. To make that more confusing to me though, they did dub the actress's voice with Geena Davis', so if nothing else it sounds just like her (because it is her!)

Old Geena Davis? Nope. Different actress, same voice, confusing children for 18 years.

Watching the movie just brings me total joy. It brings back memories from my youth playing baseball and how bad I was even though I liked playing it as well as memories of watching the movie with my brother and endlessly quoting it. Speaking of, here are some of my favorite quotes from the movie:


QUOTES:


Ernie Capadino: (to a salesman) You know, if I had your job, I'd kill myself! Wait here, I'll see if I can dig up a pistol. 

(Ernie seeing Dottie and Kit vigorously milking cows)
Ernie Capadino: Ow. Doesn't that hurt them? 
Dottie Hinson: Doesn't seem to. 
Ernie Capadino: Well, it would bruise the hell out of me. 
Dottie Hinson: Can I help you with something? 
Ernie Capadino: I'm Ernie Capadino. I'm a baseball scout. I saw you playing today. Not bad, not bad. You ever heard of Walter Harvey, makes Harvey bars - you know, the candy? 
Dottie Hinson: Yeah. We feed them to the cows when they're constipated. 
Ernie Capadino: That's the guy. He's starting a girls' baseball league, so he can make a buck while the boys are overseas. Wanna play? 
Dottie Hinson: Huh? 
Ernie Capadino: Nice retort. Tryouts are in Chicago. It's a real league, professional. 
Kit Keller: Professional - baseball? 
Ernie Capadino: Mmm-hmm. They'll pay you 75 dollars a week. 
Kit Keller: We only make 30 at the dairy. 
Ernie Capadino: Well then, this would be more, wouldn't it? 

Jimmy Dugan: Are you crying? Are you crying? ARE YOU CRYING? There's no crying! THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL! 















Mae Mordabito: What if at a key moment in the game my, my uniform bursts open and, uh, oops!, my bosoms come flying out? That, that might draw a crowd, right? 
Doris Murphy: You think there are men in this country who ain't seen your bosoms? 




(Mae is in confession; a thud is heard)
Doris Murphy: It's the second time he dropped that Bible since she's been in.
(Mae comes out, reverend looks shocked)
Doris Murphy: Mae. What did you say? 
Mae Mordabito: Everything. 




Charm School assistant: (The charm school teachers are inspecting each of the girls and they come to dowdy Marla Hooch.) What do you suggest? 
Charm School instructor: (repulsed) A lot of night games. 

One of my favorite moments and endlessly quotable lines in the movie. "Oh piss on your hat!"

The movie's anthem. Penned by Betty Spaghetti. Thanks girl!

Visit "A League of Their Own" at imdb.

Snap Judgement: Oscar Noms 2010

As exciting for me as finding out who's playing in the Superbowl, heck, more exciting to me than the actual Superbowl is hearing who the nominees are for this year's Academy Awards. I don't know why it means so much to me, it's just another award show, but I feel the other awards just lead up to this one and this is the granddaddy mother of all award shows, the one every other award show aspires to be.

This morning the 2010 nominees were released with the much discussed new 10 Best Picture contenders, which IMO allowed deserving pictures a chance, even though the ones who ended up getting in with the top 5 will never win, but in the case of "Up" especially, it's so nice to get nominated as the second animated movie EVER to do so. ("Beauty and the Beast" was the first and only up until this point. Hard to believe.)

Russell is so excited to be nominated! As am I.

And I'm better off with seeing all the nominees this year than I thought I would be. And despite me scoffing repeatedly at the joke that I knew as "The Blind Side," I guess I just might have to watch it now. It's still playing in theaters despite being released at Thanksgiving. For reals I never saw that one coming.

So here's some nominees in categories I care about with some thoughts:

Best Picture

• "Avatar"
• "The Hurt Locker"
• "Up in the Air"
• "Precious"
• "Inglourious Basterds"
• "An Education"
• "District 9"
• "Up"
• "The Blind Side"
• "A Serious Man"

I'm so excited for "District 9" and "Up" here, two movies I thought never stood a shot though I thought were very deserving. And I'm doing good as I've seen 5/5 here, with easy access to three I haven't seen (Basterds, Serious Man, and Hurt Locker are on DVD now.) And there's that stupid "Blind Side."

Best Actress

• Sandra Bullock ("The Blind Side")
• Meryl Streep ("Julie & Julia")
• Carey Mulligan ("An Education")
• Gabourey Sidibe ("Precious")
• Helen Mirren ("The Last Station")

Meryl Streep, please. I love me some good Sandra Bullock a la "The Proposal" or "Miss Congeniality" (as opposed to the too often bad Sandra Bullock) but Meryl Streep was delish as Julia Child. BON APPETIT THIS MERYL! MUAH.

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges ("Crazy Heart")
• George Clooney ("Up in the Air")
• Colin Firth ("A Single Man")
• Morgan Freeman ("Invictus")
• Jeremy Renner ("The Hurt Locker")

I've only seen Freeman and Clooney here so I'll hold off on judgement. "Crazy Heart" and "Single Man" open up soon here so I'll be seeing those easy and plan to see "Hurt Locker" ASAP too.

Best Supporting Actress

• Mo'Nique ("Precious")
• Vera Farmiga ("Up in the Air")
• Anna Kendrick ("Up in the Air")
• Penelope Cruz ("Nine")
• Maggie Gyllenhaal ("Crazy Heart")

Very excited for "Nine" to get a big nomination here, but this one goes to MoMo. Le duh.

Best Supporting Actor

• Christoph Waltz ("Inglourious Basterds")
• Woody Harrelson ("The Messenger")
• Stanley Tucci ("The Lovely Bones")
• Matt Damon ("Invictus")
• Christopher Plummer ("The Last Station")

I need to get me some Best Supporting Actors since I've only seen Damon and he doesn't stand a chance.

Best Director

• Kathryn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker")
• James Cameron ("Avatar")
• Jason Reitman ("Up in the Air")
• Quentin Tarantino ("Inglourious Basterds")
• Lee Daniels ("Precious")

Either Cameron or Bigelow. I loved "Avatar" and really still love "Titanic" but James Cameron just irks me in general. Creeper? Yes.

Best Animated Feature Film

• "Coraline"
• "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
• "The Princess and the Frog"
• "The Secret of Kells"
• "Up"

This is "Up's" best chance to win, but I'm so excited for "Princess and the Frog." Just glad to see classic Disney is back AND good.

I promise I care about the rest, and will be back to comment later when I see more of them, but I wanted to give a rundown of the ones I care about the mostest. Hooray for Oscars! One month to do my best to see them all.

Special: 2009 in Movies

When this past year started I set out to make this my "year of the movies." I kept every ticket stub from my trips to the movies and restarted up my Netflix and in order to not only see the big and important theatrical releases, but to catch up and finally get to see those movies I should have seen a long time ago.

A personal highlight of the movie seeing year was seeing every movie nominated for the Oscars in the Best Picture, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress and Actor, and Best Director categories. I never had attempted to that before and I always feel uninformed when it comes to the Oscars, which hail as one of the most important nights of the year to me, likewise to a normal person liking the Superbowl. Seeing all those movies was an expensive achievement, and one I don't think I'll be able to replicate this year. Not because I don' t want to, but because most Oscar movies don't seem to get released up here in the glorious Berkshires. I certainly will try to see them all and I'm already on my way with another two-ish months left!

Now: because I LOVE making lists, I'm gonna make one for my favorites and not favorites of 2009. This is not counting any movie I saw twice or any movie that I've seen before. I saw 28 new movies in the theaters this year, as well as an even 50 movies on DVD.

My Top 10 Movies of the Year:

1) Up

I can't recall a movie that has made me sob within the first 10 minutes, (well maybe except for Wall-E, and that was more because of the brilliance of that opening and not the actual story itself.) Recently rewatching Up, I might love it even more. Brilliant story, impressive animation, and three of the most entertaining characters in Russell, Dug, and Carl Fredricksen.

2) Avatar

This movie was my first 3-D movie going experience and it blew my mind. If Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and Titanic mated, then Avatar would be their love child. Sure the story was a little cliched, and the script might not have been totally original, but that didn't botherme one single bit. Maybe if the the story was more complicated on top of the ridiculous visuals, the average audience member's brain would be overloaded and combust. We'll have to see how this movie holds up into the future (and not in 3-D) but I loved it and think I will for a while.

3) The Princess and the Frog

The glorious return to the classic animated form by Disney. I think it is in my nature to love this movie, evenif it wasn't good, which I thought was not the case. It certainly lived up to every expectation I had and maybe even surpassed some of them. Shoutouts to Mama Odie and the best villain song since Ursula screamed "Body language!" And Tiana and Naveen might be my favorite Disney couple ever. Sorry Aladdin and

Jasmine.

4) Milk

Now here is a movie I think every American needs to see right NOW!For real, if you haven't seen it yet, get out there, watch it, be moved, and tell everybody else about it. I think America's attitude about what it means to love another person would change if everybody watched Milk. Besides the powerful message of the movie, Sean Penn was incredible as Harvey Milk, and maybe even better was Josh Brolin who gave a layered and complex performance as Milk's political opponent.

5) Precious

This movie ripped out my heart and stomped on it, then put it back, ripped it out again and then stomped on it some more. It's one of those movies that I have a hard time saying I liked, like Schlinder's List or Monster, because the events that transpire during the movie are awful, but the films the

mselves are excellent. Plus Mo'Nique was terrifying as Precious' mother. I couldn't believe this was the same woman who I watched host Showtime at the Apollo on UPN on Saturday nights at 1:00AM. Yes I really watched that show.

6) Away We Go

This one kind of slipped under the radar this year, but I rented it on DVD and loved it so much. I laughed, I cried, it was fantastic. Who knew Maya Rudolph was a fantastic actress and John Krasinski, aka Jim, can do no wrong. The movie feels so real in every way.

7) Star Trek

A complete surprise to me as I never thought I'd like, nay WATCH a Star Trek movie, but this one had me hooked from the beginning. I needed no prior knowledge of the Star Trek-verse to like the movie, but the small bits I did know helped me appreciate homages thrown in. Well done, JJ.

8) Doubt

Please, Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams are fantastic. I believe when told people what I thought of this after I saw it I said I wanted to "Lick the screen because Meryl Streep is that good."

9) District 9

I was definitely intrigued with the concept of the movie, and after I saw it, loved the mashup of science fiction with a realistic parable. A totally unique vision that had me alternately squirming, cringing, and getting all riled up.

10) This Is It

How did the Michael Jackson concert film make my top 10!? Seriously, I'm not sure. I didn't know what to expect, but it was beyond anything I thought it could be. To see the genius this man was, and to watch him in action and love it, it made me realize how much the world lost with his death this past summer.

And because I couldn't choose just 10, here's the runner ups.

11) Nine

12) Sunshine Cleaning

13) Watchmen

14) The Proposal

15) Taking Woodstock

Favorite movies that I saw in 2009 but weren't released in 2009:

- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

- Love Me If You Dare (Thank you Mallori for introducing me to this French film with one of my favorite actresses, Marion Cotillard)

- On the Waterfront

- A Streetcar Named Desire

- The Laramie Project

- E.T. (Yes it’s the first time I had actually seen the entire movie!)

- North by Northwest

- All About Eve

- The Silence of the Lambs

- White Christmas


Biggest Surprises:
- Zombieland (I thought this one was hysterically awesome. Very Grindhouse.)
- Ghost Town (Ricky Gervais made this movie. I love his humor.)
- The Duchess (I don't really like period dramas very much but liked this one a lot. Keira Knightly was fantastic.)
- 17 Again (So the 12 year old girl in me loved this movie. So what? I don't care.)


Biggest Disappointments:
- Where the Wild Things Are (Fell asleep and was bored. Sorry.)
- Nine (I wanted so much more from this movie. The acting was good, the songs were amazing, but the movie itself just lacked...something, but I still liked it a hella lot.)
- Revolutionary Road (Kate and Leo in a movie directed by American Beauty's Sam Mendes?! Should've been knock your socks off awesome. But the sadness of the movie just weighed me down. Unlike Precious, where awful things happen to this person but that person overcomes it all, the couple in this movie just let the bad things destroy them and the movie ended miserably.)

Least Favorites:
Inkheart
Confessions of a Shopaholic
The Informant!
Where the Wild Things Are
Knowing
Coraline
Seven Pounds (One of the worst movies I've seen of all time.)
Changeling
Frozen River
The Searchers


And that's my little list from 2009, my year of the movies. We'll see how 2010's movies stack up. :)