11:05 AM: The King's Speech
1:55 PM: The Fighter
4:35 PM: Blue Valentine
7:25 PM: 127 Hours
Am I demented? Perhaps, but it's a lovely kind of dementia.
And if I'm not ready to drop from exhaustion and my eyes haven't gone all wonky, I might stick around for Dhobi Ghat at 9:20, just because I do love a good Bollywood film.
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5 years ago
18 comments:
That schedule sounds a tad crazy and totally awesome. I would absolutely wear sweatpants and pack a crapload of snacks.
will you please let me know what you think of Blue Valentine?
I'm afraid that it will be like Black Swan in that the performances are fantastic but I'll feel all ooey after I see it. I don't know if I can take that.
At least you'll have time to sleep in. I hope the movies get progressively better but I'm not going to hold my breath on that note. Also, remember what happened to Grandma during My Best Friend's Wedding? 'nuff said
Linda, I have no idea what happened to Gram during My Best Friend's Wedding. Do tell.
Liz, yeah, good performances, ooey feeling.
Kris, I'm wearing cords that feel like sweats, crapload of snacks in my bag. Satellite wafer candies were a nice addition to The King's Speech, since the queen has quite a sweet tooth and she makes you crave sugar.
Grandma fell asleep and snored out loud during that movie. It was her only movie that day and she didn't find it boring. A non-stop viewing marathon could tax your brain. And let's hope there is not another The Kids are Alright or Black Swan in your future. Someone needs to invent brain erase.
To many English speaking films here for my taste.
What can I say, dude? I go where the Academy tells me to go. You'll be pleased to know Dhobi Ghat was mostly in Hindi. And the Boston accents in The Fighter were as close to another language as you can get.
forget the Academy there are some awesome foreign films that don't even make it to the academy. Stinkin' myopic politic awards show.
"Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" - Awesome!
"Cyrano Agency" was a nice film, I'd watch it again.
there are others but they escape me at the moment.
You are getting me nowhere near that Old Boy Trilogy, so just forget it.
It sounds like you think a film is superior simply for being in a language other than English. That sounds rather myopic to me. Lots of great nominated films this year. The King's Speech is brilliant. The Fighter, True Grit, Winter's Bone, Animal Kingdom. All marvelous.
Oldboy is not a trilogy! Three films from one director with revenge as a theme. Otherwise, all Hitchcock films are prequels / sequels of Vertigo.
What I am saying is that the academy only puts up films that they think will win for a certain category. So and so can have a great lead performance but in the current race for the Oscar they are pitted up against someone they will be creamed with. So they list the person as a supporting actor or actress. Same with foreign language films in the Oscar race. These countries can only produce one film for contention? It is just political juggling with Business as usual.
Oh yeah: "Ping Pong playa" - made in the USA but never got an Oscar nod. watch it. and enjoy. your welcome.
My apologies. I misspoke. I meant the Vengeance Trilogy, of which Oldboy is the second film. I'm not going anywhere near them. I loved his Joint Security Area, but I was traumatized by Audition, and I've heard plenty of comparisons between that and the trilogy and I just can't handle any more.
You act like the Academy is a single person, manipulating nominations strictly for business reasons. Thousands of people vote for nominations in their own categories. So, only actors vote for the acting nominations, directors vote for the directing nominations, etc. If thousands of actors want to nominate Hailee Steinfeld in the supporting category, that's where she goes. I think the case can be made that she's the lead, but I hardly think thousands of people are voting for her for political reasons. Harvey Weinstein isn't controlling them like marionettes.
Yes, there is a political element, and studios are vying for awards (they'd be foolish not to) but you have that element in any awards show, in any country, in any artistic medium.
As for Best Foreign Film, yeah, that's one category. These aren't the Foreign Language Oscars. If a foreign language film really resonates, it will pick up noms and wins in other categories (Life is Beautiful, Volver, etc.), but this is largely a Hollywood awards show, and it's right that the nominees reflect that. And not for nothing, but the American film industry leads the world. We put out more movies than any country except India, and their film industry is very like a factory system.
Many of these foreign language filmmakers you so greatly admire have been inspired by the Hollywood filmmakers before them, including Park Chan-wook who lists Hitchcock as a major influence. (Yeah, Hitch was a Brit, but he's a Hollywood filmmaker.) You can see the Hollywood style all through Joint Security Area, and JSA was hailed as a new era in Korean filmmaking for just that reason.
If you drink the Kool-aid that "the Oscars are just some ridiculous political race" then you're missing out on some great films, and that's a shame. And there's a reason it's the most prized award in the film business, in any country.
And I will check out Ping Pong Playa. Thank you.
You know, James, you really ought to come to PA so we can settle this with a fist fight.
1. if you are avoiding a great film (Lady Vengeance) just because it has a similar theme (revenge) as Old Boy then many happy prejudices to you.
Did you make it through "The Talented Mr. Ripley" ? Or through Dangerous Liaisons? Or Pay Back?
Do you avoid Darren Aronofsky films because he has the rep of the "weirdness" in his films and he made Black Swan, And Requiem for a Dream?
For shame, since "The Fountain" is a great story with amazing lighting, and eye candy.
And remember our previous fisticuffs in years past...you always go to your mother crying. :D
1. Were you listening at all? I am avoiding the Vengeance Trilogy because they are constantly compared to Audition, a Japanese film that made me ill and gave me nightmares. I love vengeance as a theme. Are you kidding me? Have we met? Hooray for vengeance.
2. Where was your second point? Why start numbering when there's nothing to number?
3. If anyone compared a film to Requiem for a Dream, I'd avoid it the same way I'd avoid any film that was similar to Transformers. That's not prejudice. That's knowing your tastes and choosing your films accordingly. I only have so much time to see so many films. I'm not wasting precious hours on Michael Bay.
4. I'm gonna make you cry and I'm gonna tell your mama.
A. Mama don't care b/c she was up until 5:00am.
2. Now you see where James gets it.
That's okay. The crying part was the material point.
1. I was. I just saw the "Man from Nowhere" and someone compared it to "Old Boy" . They were wrong. The only thing to compare is they are both movies and made in Korea. Other than that ...WTH?
Hey, "Charlie and the chocolate factory" and "Chocolat" are both films, both have chocolate, they must be both be films of fanciful delight, and songs of whimsy!
2. I got lazy and didn't want to number.
3. You have more time than you realize.
3.14. Transforms sucked (thank you mainly to Shia LaBoeuf, partly to Michael Bay). But the voice acting of Optimus Prime made it all worth while. Took me back. Back when animation looked crappy and I didn't care. Sort of like a Surfs movie or Jem movie would be for you if they had the original voices.
17. Yes this is your 17th comment on the subject.
Oh, my co -worker told me a story of his girlfriend and "plants with ghosts attached".
Which led to discussion on Asian movies and music. He mentioned "oldboy". I had to tactfully discourage him from watching it. But he is all for "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance".
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