Movies!

Lately, I've seen:

• Oscar nominated Animated Shorts.  My favorite was The Lady and the Reaper.  I thought it was well animated, the story was current and relevant.  Logorama was another great animated short, much harsher than the others.  
• Oscar nominated Live Action Shorts.  I really enjoy seeing these smaller films.  My favorite of these was The Tenant.  It was absurd and fun.  
• Precious.  It was every bit as intense as I was warned it would be.  I thought it was brilliantly acted by all involved - including Mariah Carey as the dowdy social worker.
• Crazy Heart.  I think Jeff Bridges may have Best Actor locked up with this performance.  I didn't think the story was especially creative or inventive.  
• Blind Side. So much better than I was expecting.  I thought it would be a sappy chick flick and it was so well done.  I see why Sandra Bullock has the best actress nod.  Very well done.
• A Single Man.  I loved this film.  I think it had so many layers and so much emotion.  It's a movie I want to talk about with people because I feel the need to share the story and the heartbreak.
• An Education.  An excellent movie all around: costumes, story, acting, art direction.  Please go see this movie if it is anywhere near you.  

Still need to see Avatar...and need to see it soon before Alice in Wonderland comes out and kicks it out of a bunch of theatres.  One night this week most likely.

A gosh darn good Sunday

Banana Nut pancakes at City Diner.

Old Navy for some Jingle Jammies for Christmas presents.

Wrapped up Christmas shopping with a few more stops.

An easy commute back to my neighborhood (noteworthy because a major St. Louis highway has been closed for one year and just reopened last weekend.  This is the highway that makes it most convenient for me to get to my favorite shopping area in town.)

Got lunch at Crazy Bowl and Wraps.  Chicken teriyaki bowl with brown rice - yum.

Went to see a special engagement of Up In The Air starring George Clooney at the Moolah Movie theatre.

 Here is a picture of the Moolah.  It was a giant old temple and is now a beautiful one screen movie palace with leather couches and chairs.  See them down there?  Awesome.  I managed to snag a loveseat today.  Took off my boots and curled up to watch the show.  It's so great.  And they give you a Hershey's Kiss as you leave the theatre.

Up In The Air is an extra special movie for us St. Louisans as most of it was filmed here.  On top of it's good reviews, I wanted to go and spot all the locations.  I recognized a lot of it and that was pretty exciting.

The movie was good.  I left the movie feeling the same way I did when I left No Country for Old Men.  I didn't feel like everything was resolved.  It took a lot of time and discussion board reading to accept that sometimes life doesn't resolve itself in 100 minutes and that was part of what that movie wanted to portray.  Up In The Air had a similar theme in terms of resolution.  I loved Anna Kendrick, whom I have loved since the kooky little movie Camp.  I thought her character was solid and there is one scene with the three major characters where she is perfect.  It's probably the best scene of the movie - and I won't spoil anything by saying it's the scene where the two female characters meet for the first time right before a convention.  The conversation there is real and interesting.  It's hard to say much more about the movie without giving away more than I think I should.  Go see it.  I think you'll like it.

In other news, did anyone love the Glee finale as much as I did???  Woohoo!  Great music, great ending - when Mr. Schuester runs out of the room during the finale song I got chills.  I've downloaded all of the songs from that episode already.  Good stuff Glee - keep it up and I'll see you in the spring!

Process Stories

It's been a bit of a blah day.

I expected these. The days where I lay around and wonder what I'm doing.

I'm trying to decide between making a tuna fish sandwich or risotto with shrimp and asparagus for dinner. I've made this risotto dish before. It's based on a dish I had once at a restaurant called Calo that my friend Laura took me to on a visit last May. It was sooo good and with asparagus from a farmer's market in St. Louis last summer I attempted to recreate it. I did okay. I think I could do it again. I just need to find the energy.

I rented Schindler's List. Not to be depressed, it was just next on the Netflix queue. I've never seen it and feel it's something I should see. Do I make fancy risotto and watch depressing movies? Do I eat tuna and watch depressing movies? Do I take myself out for a drink? The answer to that is 'not likely' since that would require putting on real pants.

I'm good when I give myself a task. Tomorrow, lunch with Emily and Laura, Friday, new makeup shopping with Sarah B. and making dinner with a friend. Today was no plans and no motivation. These days are fewer, for sure. I don't relish them. Although, working up the motivation to write all this out has helped me create the desire to cook actual food. Fancy risotto and depressing film, here I come. Wish me luck on both fronts.

The Ticket

Oscar movie time is here!

Christmas day may end the holiday season, but it starts a whole new one for me. It's See-As-Many-Movies-That-I-Think-Will-Be-Nominated-For-An-Oscar season. I'm behind the 8 ball for sure, hopefully the long New Years Day weekend will help me with that. Here's a review of what I've seen so far.

Milk.
Great story, Sean Penn did some great acting as did Emile Hirsch. In fact, this was a really well acted ensemble. Josh Brolin had a smaller supporting part, but he just nailed it. The last three things I've seen him in he's really carried it. I thought he was the most under-rated part of No Country for Old Men last year, he was perfect as W, which was not Oliver Stones best work, but more of a nanny nanny boo boo to the president, but Brolin made it worth while, and he had some real complexities in Milk that were brilliant. Milk is based on the true story of the first openly gay politician elected and it was a great story. It was open minded and passionate and persistent. If nothing else, you'll learn where the term "Twinkie defense" came from. Which I didn't know, but maybe you do.

Frost/Nixon.
Another based on a true story movie this Oscar season. I had no idea what this movie was ultimately about going in - except it was about Nixon and some guy named Frost. I loved the way this movie was edited, with some of the characters flashing back while the story was being told. I thought that made it more interesting to get their perspective on what they had been doing then and what the impact of it would be. Great supporting cast in this one, but the acting that stood out was Frank Langella as Nixon. I thought he was great and can support his nomination in acting if that happens. I have many more movies to see before I think he could win it, but he deserves the nod. Good story, told well, was engaging and went quickly.

With both of these being based on true stories, I'm reminded of a quote that Harry Truman said, "There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know." Why do we bother to write fiction until we've told all the stories from the past. In a way, this is why I got out of the film program, I was worried that everything had already been done, there was nothing original left. I'm sad I didn't pay better attention in history classes I've had. It's all really quite interesting.