BS: The Oscars for 2013

Subject: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 01:43 AM

Well, like it or not, it's that time again.

On Thursday, at 5:30am PT, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the nominees for the 85th Annual Academy Awards. (they decided to announce them five days early to get a jump on the Golden Globes) For some reason, this has become one of the most important events in Western Civilization.

The concept is a simple one: a bunch of people who belong to "The Academy" (mostly bitter old men) decide what's "best" from 655 films that were shown in domestic theaters in 2012 . These run from "Marvel's The Avengers", which grossed nearly $624 million, to "The Ghastly Love of Johnny X", which grossed $117 (I wanted to see that one!) Plus 72 Foreign Films and a whole bunch of documentaries.

Here's a list of the Most Likely Oscar Contenders, It includes these "most likely" nominees for best film:(1)Lincoln, (2)Argo, (3)Les Miserables, (4)Zero Dark Thirty, (5)Silver Linings Playbook, (6)Life of Pi, (7)Django Unchained, (8)Beasts of the Southern Wild, (9)Moonrise Kingdom, (10)The Master

Are these really the best films? Which ones have you seen? Which ones do you like? Which films should be nominated instead? Inquiring minds want to know. Only thing, since many of these films are still in theaters (and some have only appeared in limited release) try not to give away too much story line.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 02:40 AM

Lincoln is one of the four or five best films I have ever seen. It will win some Oscars. It is a strong contender for best picture.

I think that Daniel Day Lewis is a leading contender for Best Actor, Tommy Lee Jones, Best Supporting Actor and Sally Field for whichever acting award she is eligible for depending on her time on screen.

It will probably be nominated for sound, costume design, set design, screen play and possibly directing. I don't know if it will win best picture.

The only other film I have seen on the list is Moonrise Kingdom. I think it was Wes Anderson's best film but it is not the type of film that wins best picture Comedies are at a disadvantage.

I don't think that Zero Dark thirty will win either. It is too similar to the Hurt Locker, Same cinema style, same writer producer and director and it isn't getting nearly as good reviews as Hurt Locker.

Argo, may have a chance, Good Will Hunting won with Affleck as a writer/actor.

Les Miserables like all musicals is at a disadvantage.

Django Unchained, like all violent comedies, is also at a disadvantage.

Life of Pi looked really pretty in previews. Like all films that rely heavily on special effects. It is at a disadvantage.

I have not even heard of the other movies.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 05:53 AM

as Lincoln is such a good film, I won't spoil the ending by telling you - he gets shot.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Elmore
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 09:21 AM

Don't get to the movies much these days, but saw and enjoyed "les Miserables" twice. When my wife likes a movie, she really likes it,enough to see it multiple times.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 10:45 AM

I enjoyed "Lincoln", and felt like it said a lot of things that needed to be said. It seemed like a lot of the Mudcat discussions about "Lincoln" and the Civil War. I'll bet Bobert hates it, because he doesn't like Lincoln at all.

Only thing, it was a lot like "1776"--right down to the intransigent New York delegation and the Congress singing (my kids love "1776", so I've seen it a lot). Historians have pointed out that Spielberg's "dramatic tension" is deceptive, because by the time of this vote, slavery had been dismantled, and that no one was going to restore it if the amendment didn't pass.

I think it's going to be a hard film for the Academy to ignore, if only because of the subject matter (and, by this time, half of the Academy have probably worked for Spielberg).

"Zero Dark Thirty" is one of those films that gets better as you think about it. "Lincoln" was about doing the right thing, but "ZDT was about moral ambiguity. We'll see which Hollywood likes best this year.

I thought "Moonrise Kingdom" and "Beasts of the Southern Wild" were better films than the others I'd seen (only five of the ten so far). I have heard so much good and bad about "Les Miz" that I am going to have trouble enjoying it...

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 11:46 AM

Hmmm. Y-A-W-N. I have very little regard for or interest in the Academy.

So far I've seen none of the films you listed, Stim, but I definitely plan to see "Lincoln". It sounds like a movie I would love, and Daniel Day-Lewis is always worth seeing. Will probably see "Les Miz" too. Don't know much about the others at this point.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 02:17 PM

You'd probably like "Moonrise Kingdom", Little Hawk it is not a "Hollywood"" movie in any way. It's the sort of movie you'd give to an elf for Christmas.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 02:30 PM

Wow. It can't get much better than that, Stim. ;-) I'll watch for it.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 02:42 PM

haven't made it to many films this past year... but made a point of seeing Lincoln (had to go 50 miles to find a theatre that still was playing it!?!)... the Hobbit & Life of Pi ( which I'm still trying ti figure out, but the cinamatography was great).

Liked Lincoln enough that I tracked down the book to read... as well as the Amistad Rebellion.   I recently rewatched Amazing Grace... and still tear up at the end, too.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 10:00 PM

I like the idea of driving 50 miles to see a movie...that makes for a long date, though;-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 10 Jan 13 - 10:45 AM

Here are the nominations that get the most "buzz":

Best picture

"Amour" Nominees to be determined
"Argo" Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers
"Beasts of the Southern Wild" Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers
"Django Unchained" Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers
"Les Misérables" Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward andCameronMackintosh,Producers
"Life of Pi" Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers
"Lincoln" Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers
"Silver Linings Playbook" Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers
"Zero Dark Thirty" Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers

Director

"Amour" Michael Haneke
"Beasts of the Southern Wild" Benh Zeitlin
"Life of Pi" Ang Lee
"Lincoln" Steven Spielberg"Silver Linings Playbook" David O. Russell

Lead actor

Bradley Cooper in "Silver Linings Playbook"
Daniel Day-Lewis in "Lincoln"
Hugh Jackman in "Les Misérables"
Joaquin Phoenix in "The Master"
Denzel Washington in "Flight"

Lead actress

Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty"
Jennifer Lawrence in "Silver Linings Playbook"
Emmanuelle Riva in "Amour"
Quvenzhané Wallis in "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
Naomi Watts in "The Impossible"

The rest are here:

Complete List of Oscar Nominees

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 10 Jan 13 - 12:24 PM

"I like the idea of driving 50 miles to see a movie...that makes for a long date, though;-) "

LOL... since our 40th anniversary is this year... we actually go to watch the movie....

but western NY is rural & as the crow flies doesn't work with all these long Finger Lakes in the way.... so it's a 50 mile one way trip just to attend a sing around or concert, if not longer.   at least I can afford the gas... that hasn't always been the case.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 10 Jan 13 - 01:15 PM

Though I live in a metropolitan sprawl, the effect is much the same. Everything is farther away, in both distance and time, than you'd think. What with traffic and distance, it takes 20 minutes to get to anything "close", 45 minutes or more to get to "in the area" stuff, and an hour or more to get to everywhere else, that's if traffic is good(it never is).

Anyway, congratulations on your 40th, you must be very special people--most of us couldn't figure out how to keep it together at all;-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Jan 13 - 01:32 PM

I lived in that same area in the 60s, sciencegeek. Went to school in Skaneateles. The towns I remember from back then are Skaneateles, Mottville (a tiny place), Auburn, and the big city of Syracuse. The geography around there is really beautiful, but the economy and the society in general always seemed kind of depressed to me. Politically, it was mostly solid Republican territory. They voted for Goldwater and Nixon.

Skaneateles was a snooty little town, still recalling its days of glory...back before WWII...as a kind of ritzy tourist and vacation hangout for the well-to-do. I frankly detested the place, and had no regrets on leaving it. I returned to Canada in 1969, kind of like the Children of Israel...finally reaching the Promised Land. I could have knelt down and kissed the ground when I crossed that Canadian border. Bye-bye Vietnam War! Hello, peace, moderation, and sanity.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 10 Jan 13 - 01:44 PM

western NY has produced its share of "notables"... for better or worse...

Joseph Smith (founder of the Mormons) left ( or was not so politely forced to leave) the Finger Lakes region. The Temperance movement got its start in Fredonia near Lake Erie. There have been small colonies of spiritualists, health nuts, religious minorities all over the area. Besides Shakers, there was a small group of Seventh Day Baptists who founded what later became the university I attended... and they came from CT, which I learned one day when I read the placque at the old meeting House in Mystic Seaport. Not only was Alfred a "dry" town, but even the Post Office was open of Sunday instead of Saturday.

I grew up in eastern Long Island and as the NYC influence spread our way, we always referred to travel time and not milage. LOL

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 10 Jan 13 - 02:53 PM

How about those Lincoln predictions eh?

http://oscar.go.com/nominees

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 10 Jan 13 - 06:27 PM

You've got it, Jack. I don't think it's much of a mystery as to how things will turn out..

"Argo" is a "feel good" movie about the CIA. "Zero Dark Thirty" is a "feel not so good" movie about the CIA, and, as you say, Kathryn Bigelow and Co. already have a stack of Oscars for a pretty similar movie. "Django Unchained" is a Quentin Tarrantino satire of a spaghetti western,(that's three strikes right there) "Life of Pi" and "Amour" are, more or less, foreign films, and they gave an Oscar to one of them last year.

"Beasts of the Southern Wild" is quirkly and arty, and that, too, is "last year". It's big budget, top grossing blockbusters this year. "Les Miserables" is on the list to remind everyone that, "Hey, we still make musicals for a mainstream audience(as opposed to "The Ghastly Love of Johnny X", which was a musical for about 8 people). "Silver Linings Playbook" isn't violent enough,

"Lincoln" is a Spielberg movie at it's best--it tells us everything we want to think about ourselves without making it seem too obvious--slavery was bad and needed to be abolished, politics is a dirty business, and in the end, no matter how tight it looks, the good guys win, albeit at a terrible cost.

And how about that Lincoln? A great story teller, like Will Rogers, without the rope tricks, clever and insightful, like Mark Twain in a black suit, and wise, like Gandalf, but with a stovepipe hat.

And the envelope, please...

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 10 Jan 13 - 06:45 PM

I'm rooting for "Lincoln" as best picture. So much care was taken that it may deserve a special Oscar for sincerity. ;-) The sound guy actually went out and recorded real sounds President Lincoln would have heard, including actual bells from that time.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 11 Jan 13 - 12:15 AM

Yep. That's what sound guys do. I have a friend who's worked as a sound editor in Hollywood for many years, and he tells entertaining stories about how sounds are obtained, including a few about some of the amusing ways that Ben Burtt (who did "Lincoln") created sounds when he was working on the "Star Wars" films. Burtt was the one who began using the Wilhelm Scream and made it a sort of tradition in sci-fi and horror films,

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Mrr whose computer RsIP
Date: 11 Jan 13 - 01:04 PM

For the first time in donkey's years I have actually seen not only one, but TWO whole movies on the list! I am so IN this year!

Anyway, I vote for Hobbit for makeup and Django for best supporting, having seen none of the other contestants.

I don't think 0dark30 should win anything on principle.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jan 13 - 01:21 PM

Why is that, Mrzzy?

I finally watched "The Hurt Locker" for the first time last night on the computer, put in the requisite 2 hours (more or less)...then said to myself, "Well, there's 2 wasted hours I will never get back!"

If Zero Dark Thirty is more of the same, I'll probably wait about as long to bother watching it as well.

I am sick to death of gritty movies about the Empire's suffering and misused soldiers in the so-called "War on Terror"...a war which is in truth exactly what it claims to be fighting against.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 11 Jan 13 - 03:28 PM

I know why Mrzzy feels like that, Little Hawk. Think for a minute and you will, too.

I liked "The Hurt Locker" a lot, and I think you missed what it is about. The quote at the beginning,"The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug." sets the tone, and, for me, at least, the film shows how indifferent the warring parties are to the world they are destroying while they fight with one another. Not exactly "joyous and uplifting", though...

Mrzzy-last year, after years of being "out" I decided to watch all of the nominated films(and a a bunch that were close contenders). I'm doing that again this year(though, to my taste, the films aren't nearly as good). I mention this to you only because the next film on my list is"Les Mrzz"...

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jan 13 - 03:43 PM

Yeah, I realize that's what the movie was about, Stim, the addiction to the rush of danger in combat...but I am so repulsed by these modern wars (and the almost complete ignorance of many of the naive people who are fighting them), that I don't find most of the moves about them anything but depressing.

Whereas Avatar, for example, I found moving and inspiring, because the protagonists stood up for a worthy cause and fought a fight worth fighting.

When I watch films about American (and Coalition) soldiers going through hell in occupied countries, I am reminded of what German soldiers went through in WWII. They also went through hell in the occupied countries, fighting the resistance. The reason? Simple. They didn't belong in those countries. They were a hated foreign invader in lands where they should never have gone.

There was an old 1962 WWII-based film about someone who got off on the rush of combat. It was called "The War Lover", and it starred Steve McQueen, as I recall. He played a B-17 bomber pilot who lived for the adrenalin rush of danger. He finally ended up trying to fly a crippled B-17 back over the Cliffs of Dover...didn't quite make it...the place flew straight into those famous cliffs and was atomized, thus ended the reckless career of the "war lover" in a suitably dramatic fashion.

I think there are only a few such people in a war. Most of them just wish they weren't there. That's the sane reaction to being in such a situation.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 11 Jan 13 - 03:47 PM

The Hurt Locker was certainly about the soldiers and what they go through and how they feel about their work.

0 Dark Thirty, is about a made up CIA Agent (according to the Producers she is "a composite"), adjusted to make the largest possible audience inclined to see the movie, including those who believe that torture is effective. Reportedly the movie shows torture as the only method used but the main character "has her doubts." The fact that John McCain got together with Democrats to kindly ask for a disclaimer saying that the official report said that torture did not lead to finding Bin Ladin is telling.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 11 Jan 13 - 03:56 PM

"When I watch films about American (and Coalition) soldiers going through hell in occupied countries,"

No offense meant, but I don't think you understand "The Hurt Locker" The job the bomb disposal teams do has to be volunteered for. In fact the US forces are all volunteer. So that is twice they have to volunteer to get to that position. If they are going through hell, that particular hell is their own choice. That was not the case for most NAZI forces.

Little Hawk you may also find it worthy of note that Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) was a protege of James Cameron. (Avatar)

As a Canadian, I don't think that Cameron would have been allowed the access to make a movie like 0 Dark 30.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jan 13 - 04:42 PM

No offense taken, Jack.

Yes, I realize that the US forces are all volunteer now. That was actually a smart political decision on the part of the USA government, to end the Draft, because it was the middle class opposition TO the Draft that really ended public support in America for the Vietnam War. You don't have that big a PR problem if there is no Draft. You can fight a war that the majority of the population no longer supports, and still avoid facing a really massive protest movement if you use only volunteers to do the fighting...and volunteers can always be had...specially in times of high unemployment.

Who joins the army nowadays? A variety of people. Some do it to get a job. Some do it to escape poverty and bad living conditions or a dysfunctional family. Some do it to learn a trade. Some do it because they think it's their patriotic duty. Some do it to fight "terrorism" (so they think). Some mainly do it because they come from families with a strong military tradition, and it seems to them like the right thing to do.

This was also true in Germany in the '30s and 40's. Many young Germans willingly volunteered for service for a variety of reasons similar to those above, but the rush of patriotic fervor in the early years of the war was really enormous. Later on, of course, pretty much everyone got drafted regardless of what they thought about the situation, and by then many were sick of the war and hoped only for its end.

I think Kathryn Bigelow is a good movie-maker, but the subject matter she has chosen to film doesn't attract me.

The best movie I've seen about the bond that occurs between fighting men in the hell of combat is "Black Hawk Down". I could definitely relate to what those guys were going through. They probably shouldn't have been there either, but the way they felt for their buddies beside them was moving and totally understandable. I thought it was a very good war movie.

And I also totally understand why many of the Somalis would have wanted to fight those guys. It's like when the Union soldiers asked the captured Confederate soldier, "Why are you fighting us?" (perhaps imagining he was doing it to preserve slavery?) He looked at them, in surprise, and replied, "Because you're down here!"

That is the usual reason men fight very hard when they're fighting on their own home ground against a foreign force...and in the 1860s, your own home ground meant first and foremost your own home state...and second to that those other states it was allied with...and after that, the entire nation. The USA was much more local and regional in psychology then than it is now...probably because they didn't have the kind of unifying mass media-formed culture we do now. TV and radio had not arrived yet to homogenize the old agrarian culture that was tied so strongly to the land you were born on.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 11 Jan 13 - 05:14 PM

After cogitating on it for a while, and I think Jack has a good point--Cameron and Bigelow's stories seem drastically different--fantasy space opera vs. realistic present day war, black hat/white hat vs. moral ambiguity, but they want us to think about the same things--the American miltary in "The Hurt Locker"is the same one that is in "Avatar", technology and all, and they are doing the same things. Change the costumes in the climax of ZDT and move it to a fantasy space jungle, and it could have been in "Avatar".

Not surprisingly, we are a lot more comfortably watching this all play out in a remote place in a distant time...

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 11 Jan 13 - 05:16 PM

When I lived near Ft Benning, I actually met one of the soldiers in the "Black Hawk Down" incident. That does not have anything to do with this conversation.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 11 Jan 13 - 05:21 PM

I think Cameron and Bigelow have similar approaches to movie making. The soldiers in Aliens were pretty much like those in Avatar which were like those in 0 dark 30. Cameron says he bases his soldiers on stories from a relative of his who is a retired marine. Bigelow said in that movie her's were based on interviews with soldiers. There seems to be an authenticity in both.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jan 13 - 06:06 PM

Hmmm. Interesting points, guys. I get the comparison between Cameron's and Bigelow's depictions of soldiers.

Soldiers are put through a training process that is intended to make them absolutely obedient to higher authority and, quite frankly, to brutalize them so that they can kill other people and face absolutely horrible situations and not hesitate to do it.

This has been done by military authorities since time imemmorial. The effect it has on people, and on their families when they return from combat, is often extremely traumatic and never without some negative fallout.

It both strengthens people and hardens them. That's good in some ways. Not so good in other ways.

My father learned to be a very good survivor from having served in WWII, and he learned to be tough and self-reliant. He also carried emotional armour from it that, in my opinion, emotionally crippled him in certain respects for the rest of his life. He advised me never to join the military and never to go to war, based on his own experience...but he didn't need to tell me that. I'd have come to the same conclusion regardless, just by studying the history of war and its effect on people.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 11 Jan 13 - 07:29 PM

Interesting thoughts, Little Hawk(as always). Most of the people I know who went off to war, whatever they may have felt about there experiences there, or the justification for the war, felt that the experience was an important part of who they became, and would not have given it up.

The common experience of WWII had both a good and bad influence on the decades that followed--there was a certain sense of equalitarianism and of shared goals and cooperation that they had, on the other hand, military conformity morphed in to civilian conformity, and there was nuclear paranoia combined with the need for a common enemy--

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 12 Jan 13 - 07:09 PM

Just saw "Les Miserables", and was very taken with Amanda Seyfried's singing. Thought the first part of the movie, which mostly revolved around Anne Hathaway as Fantine, was a bit muddled. When it got into the business about the barricades and Marius (Eddie Redmayne),Cossette (Amanda Seyfried) and Eponine (Samantha Barks) the music became the driving force, and I thought it really came together.

Hugh Jackman was a bit unfocussed(I kept thinking he was going to break into "What Kind of Fool am I?), and Russell Crowe, who can seem menacing with a sharp glance, was surprisingly un-menacing as Javert.

I liked it, but I (unlike JtS) like musicals. Was it Oscar material? Not unless you're comparing it to "Argo" and "Django Unchained". But the musical numbers are way better than the ones in "Lincoln";-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jan 13 - 08:09 PM

That sounds worth seeing to me. I'll put a night aside for it next week. Or better yet, I'll go to the afternoon show. Less audience noise and more movie is the way I like to go.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 12 Jan 13 - 09:00 PM

I would pay eight dollars not to hear Russell Crowe sing. :-D

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jan 13 - 09:06 PM

Will you pay me $8 if I promise to take out the garbage? ;-) My own garbage, that is...not yours. You live much too far away to make it worth my while.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 12 Jan 13 - 10:37 PM

I don't see how that would work, Jack, since you are in a constant state of not hearing Russell Crowe sing. Who would you pay? Would it be like insurance? If you paid me, I could get some of that Indian Pistachio Ice Cream that is so good...it would have gone well with "The Life of Pi", which I just saw.

Incidentally, I enjoyed the first part of this movie--including the dire event, but it reminded me a lot of "Flight" and "The Impossible" which both had all the action at the beginning and spent the rest of the movie sorting things out.

I hope I am not giving too much away by saying that most of this movie is spent floating in a lifeboat. It worked for Hitchcock, but he had Tallulah Bankhead. An animated tiger just isn't the same.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 03:26 AM

Its made by Ang Lee. Ang Lee makes pretty movies, very pretty movies. Thank you. I will watch it when I don't want too much excitement. I expect that I will enjoy it.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 03:26 PM

That's a "no", isn't it? (grin)

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: michaelr
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 04:22 PM

I very much enjoyed Beasts of the Southern Wild. It's a quirky, touching little film without any big action. What makes it amazing is the brilliant acting by then six-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis. That girl deserves an Oscar.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 05:50 PM

Beasts of the Southern Wild, it seems like a good film from the reviews, including yours.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 06:18 PM

"Beasts of the Southern Wild" is good and original film, but I seem to recall a flood and some other perils.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 06:31 PM

It sounds like that film might have made an excellent launching pad to catapult Chongo to Hollywood fame. But I haven't seen it yet, so I can't say for sure. Chongo's been talking about doing a new comedy film with Clint Eastwood called "Every Which Way But Normal", but I think Clint's just getting a little bit too old for those parts now.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 07:07 PM

They could still make the movie though, with Eastwood played by an empty chair.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 07:35 PM

Good thought.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 07:36 PM

Of course Chongo is a better fit for the roll of empty chair. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 07:40 PM

Clever rejoinder, Jack, especially since "Every Which Way But Normal" was originally loosely based on Mitt Romney's days at Cranbrook Academy. It's been rewritten as another Planet of the Apes pre-quel starring Andy Serkis, with screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, from a book by Andrea Dworkin. Chongo will have a walk-on...

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 07:45 PM

Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin? So Chongo is the President?

"Keep your hands of my budget you damned dirty Congress!!"

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Jan 13 - 06:46 PM

Perfect line! Yes, Chongo is really looking forward to that part as his big break in movies.

"You wait," he told me yesterday. "A couple years from now I'll be starrin' opposite Angelina Jolie in a remake of The Big Sleep. I play Marlowe. She plays the rich vamp with the rovin' eye. I bounce Ryan Gosling off the front page of People Magazine and become the Sexiest Leadin' Man in Hollywood."

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 14 Jan 13 - 07:05 PM

Only slightly more hairy than Robin Williams.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 15 Jan 13 - 03:45 PM

The movie producers gave that walk-on to Chongo strictly as a "bone". He arranged a meeting meeting between and Shane and Nicholas Sparks, because producers were interested in developing a story based on the "Blind Drunk in Blind River" concept.

At the meeting, Sparks took a sip from Shane's rusted Boy Scout canteen and woke up three days later in a tourist room near Thunder Bay. They're still looking for his rented SUV. Chongo, to his credit, warned Sparks not to eat or drink anything that Shane offered, but he never collected his "finder's fee", and he lost the "Associate Producer" screen credit.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Tam's daughter
Date: 15 Jan 13 - 03:53 PM

As for someone that has grown watching Les Mis.. and having preformed in a non musical version my self.. i can planly say after seeing the clips for this movie... it was a Les Miss

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 15 Jan 13 - 07:55 PM

Well, ok, Tam's daughter, I guess I'll defer to you, because I only saw the movie.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 15 Jan 13 - 08:32 PM

I just saw "The Sessions", which, I think I actually enjoyed more that most of the Best Picture nominees (this one only rated a "best supporting actress" for Helen Hunt). It is based on an article by Mark O'Brien, a paraplegic who, though he spent most of his life in an iron lung, managed to attend, and graduate from the University of California/Berkeley, as well a write poetry, and work as a journalist for Pacific News Service, where he wrote about having his first sexual experience with a sexual surrogate. That is the subject of this movie.

The sex scenes are what you might call "full on", though not necessarily very erotic, at least in part because of concerns about how Mark, who spends most of his life breathing with mechanical assistance, is going to survive the "breathing hard" part of sex.

The movie is a "small" movie, perhaps owing to the fact that the subject is mostly confined to an iron lung in a small apartment, but
it is humorous, engaging, and on occasion, touching. Not a "feel sorry for the cripple" movie, by any means, it is, instead, about
an intelligent and likable person(much like us) who has to live with a condition that none of us really wants to think about.

After you see this, you should check out the real Mark, in a documentary called "Breathing Lessons", which you can see at snagfilms.com. He was even more engaging that John Hawkes portrayal of him...

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,stim
Date: 16 Jan 13 - 08:38 AM

I have a degree in performance, and i have been singing since I was 3 (with adults like an adult) you can ask my mom VaTam.. Fantine is supposed to be a strong will woman.. that finally breaks with i dreamed a dream .. anne just looks pathetic.. val jean is supposed to be built like a football player so he can lift large wooden carrages with barrels inside, or a burning roof. and when hugh jackman songs who am i .. he has a nice singing voice.. if he would just use it instead of talking.. and russel crowe cant hold a tune period and was i think coying off style from jackman .. or they just watched will shatners greatest hits and watched it together.. (nothing agaisnt shatner but his musical sytling should only be in a waynes brothers musical...} cossette sounds like a tiwtterpated disney bird on crack.. and not to mention the fact in interviews they are like oh we are live singing big deal.. ya know who else did a live singing movie but did well.. nicole kidman and euwan mcgregor in Mulion Ruoge .. and i am not even a big kidman fan really

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 17 Jan 13 - 04:44 AM

That last "stim" was Tam's daughter, not me. At any rate, Tam's daughter, as mentioned above, I saw the movie. Generally, I have found that makes it easier to comment. Even still, I will allow that Ms. Hathaway's "I Dreamed a Dream" was what is sometimes called "an unusual interpretation".

As for Amanda Seyfried, I am prepared to argue that she is a wonderful singer, and that Nicole Kidman doesn't hold a patch on her. If I were you, I'd leave it there.

Subject: RE: BS: The Oscars for 2013
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Jan 13 - 03:32 PM

I've always wondered what a twitterpated disney bird on crack sounds like. I guess I'll have to see the movie now.