Movie day, all day long.

It's after 2AM and I just got back from my annual Oscar-ready day at the Waterfront in Pittsburgh. Here's a quick rundown of what I saw.

Hugo

This is Martin Scorcese's love letter to film, and what a grand and glorious Valentine it is. It's so touching and really beautiful to look at. Also, it leads the pack for nominations, so I got to cross 11 items off of my list, which was terribly fun.

Albert Nobbs

I expected to like this more than I did. I suppose I heard "butler" and thought "Downton Abbey!" It's not really that kind of story. Glenn Close and Janet McTeer were amazing, but when are they not? I liked it, but I didn't love it. However, watching it let me complete my first full category: Best Supporting Actress.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Oh wow, this movie was so good. I'm really disappointed it didn't get a Best Picture nomination. It was, by far, my favorite film of the day. The cast is crazy good. The story is amazing and so multi-faceted. It's a spy story, but not an in-your-face one like the Bourne stories. It's based on a John le Carre book so it's a slow burn spy story and it's so satisfying. Some reviews have been saying it's hard to follow (in fact, an iPhone app I have that gives you good times to leave the theater for a bathroom break listed this film as being too confusing to suggest bathroom breaks) but that's baloney. Just pay careful attention and you'll have no trouble understanding everything that's going on. A woman sitting behind me in the theater turned to her companion halfway through the film and said, "This movie is terrible. I have no idea what's going on." I don't know what her deal was, but she must have been daydreaming or something because it's not like this movie is Syriana* or something. Just pay attention and you'll be fine. And it's so, so good.

The Iron Lady

I should tread carefully here because my friend Eric, who is both ultra-conservative and madly in love with Ms. Streep (as in, he sees her as his future first lady when he one day leads the Republican party to victory and a return to the glory days of the Reagan administration), will harangue me over dinner at Trivia on Monday, but I didn't really care for this film. Again, Meryl Streep was amazing, but when is she not? And it's another one of those situations where the character is not created by the actress; it's an impression of a real person. It was an excellent impression, but I wasn't captured by the events going on in Thatcher's life. It seemed more like a documentary retelling, not a story, like the way Ray was. Or maybe it just suffered by following on the heels of Tinker Tailor. I don't have a beef with Streep's nomination, but this movie didn't do it for me. But I was able to complete both Best Actress and Best Make-up with this, so that's something.


*Syriana is either very confusing or butt-numbingly dull, because for the first time, I left a movie theater confused about the storylines of several of the characters, a couple of whom I actually could not tell apart. I saw it in New York, and as the crowd was filing out, I heard a woman tell her boyfriend, "I think that movie outsmarted me," to which he replied, "Yeah, I think the movie won."

I beg to differ. Nobody in that theater won. Nobody.