Monday, January 28, 2013

And the Oscar Goes To...

I received a “Save the Date” email this week from friends G&M for their annual Oscar Par-TAY. There are only two things I remember from last year’s party: 1) I spilled red wine all over their fuzzy, white living room rug, (which makes this year’s invite all the more unexpected); and 2) I finished dead last in the Oscar pool.  This year I’m determined to do better on both counts. I will imbibe nothing but Krystal the entire evening and I will WIN the pool!

I headed right over to ABC.com for the Official Nominee List. Hmm…the good news is my selections will be untainted by actual, first-hand, familiarity with any of the films. The bad news is, I have never even heard of half the titles up for Best Picture, let alone more niche categories like Best Actor in a Leading Role.
A film called “Amour” tops the Best Picture list, (thanks to alphabetical order), but, I kid you not, the producers are listed as TBD. That’s a pretty frickin’ obscure movie, when even the producers don’t know about it.

“Argo” comes next. Looks good, and based on a true story, which Oscar generally likes. ABC.com lists George Clooney as one of the producers. I’m embarrassed to admit, if he’d starred in it, I probably would have seen the darn thing. My friend J told me it won the Producer's Guild Award for Best Picture, but I was immediately dismissive. An un-televised award? How determinative could that be? I asked him if it had won the Golden Globe. J replied, "Listen up, amateur, 'cause I'm only going to explain his once--the Golden Globes signify nothing, except the opinion of a bunch of Hollywood foreign press. That population has, like, zero overlap with the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Producer's Guild? The Screen Actors Guild? Those organizations contain actual Academy members." Good to know.
“Beasts of the Southern Wild.” No clue.

“Django Unchained.” I recognize this as Quentin Tarantino’s latest flick. I loved “Reservoir Dogs.” I loved “Pulp Fiction.” I hit a wall somewhere around “Kill Bill Vol. 2.” I may cave when it hits Netflix or Video on Demand.
Speaking of loves, I loves me some Hugh Jackman. Again, I’m a little embarrassed to admit, but had this year’s Jackman vehicle been an X-Men installment, I could probably quote dialogue. But I have no burning desire to take in another version of “Les Miserables.”  I’m sure it’s awesome, in a way that only a musical based on a mid-nineteenth century French novel about politics, morality and justice can be.

“Life of Pi,” had a great trailer. If this movie hits VOD, I will put it to the Ambien challenge.
“Lincoln” appears in several categories, and I’m proud to say I have heard of both the man and the movie. In fact, Hubs and I almost saw this film. We opted for “Skyfall” instead. I agree with another blogger who opined that the latest James Bond offering seemed more violent and less sexy than prior Bond films, but I’m sure it was way sexier than “Lincoln.”

Next comes, “Silver Linings Playbook,” starring some dude named Bradley Cooper. I sat through “The Hangover,” based solely on Bradley’s allure, so you’d think I could carve out two hours and two minutes to take in an Oscar-nominated film featuring People Magazine’s 2011 “Sexiest Man Alive.” No luck so far. Have you seen it? Does the film show me a new side of Brad, (by which I mean shirtless, or pants-less)?  
Last, but not least, “Zero Dark Thirty” earned a Best Picture nomination. I thought for a moment I’d seen this one, but then I realized I was confusing the film with a photo of President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton and a bunch of security team members gathered in a White House situation room, watching the Bin Laden mission in real-time, looking like I look when viewing a really intense episode of “General Hospital.” Interestingly, Director Kathryn Bigelow did not receive a Best Director nomination, maybe because she won just last year for the amazing, (so I hear), film “The Hurt Locker.” Her ex-husband, James Cameron, also vied for the Best Director honor last year, for the movie “Avatar.” I couldn’t be bothered to see either film, but I would have paid good money to witness the first post-party exchange between those two.

Help me nail at least one category! Tell me your picks…your opinions. Trust me, you know far more than I.

14 comments:

  1. Well, Anne Hathaway won for best supporting actress at the SAG awards last night, and ARGO won for best picture...Oh, and Jennifer Lawrence won for best actress...so I'd at least lock those three in on your cheat sheet.

    Not that I've seen any of these movies either...

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    1. Holy crap! The SAG awards were last night? The things you miss when you're writing a blog you should have completed before the weekend started!

      Thanks for filling me in. :)

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  2. I havne't seen any of the movies, so I'm not help at all

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    1. You've been too busy writing and blogging. I'm not really sure what I've been doing to fill my time instead of seeing movies...oh...wait...I do know (slingshots next bird into pigs).

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  3. A friend votes on the Acads and I got to watch several movies with them, at home. Shhh. Anyway, I also paid the bucks to see Argo and SLP and liked both. I'd really like to see Argo win something because the writing and acting were great...to be able to instill tension into the viewer when the outcome is already known, that's a feat.

    My daughter said in watching it with me (yes, I saw it twice) that there were times she was afraid to breathe because she didn't want to miss anything. : )

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    1. Oooh, you're my expert! You have friends in the Academy and you've seen many of the nominated films. I'm writing it down...ARGO for Best Picture.

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  4. Psst...hey you...yeah, over here.
    The fix is in - Hands down Licoln. Best actor - Daniel Day-Lewis.
    Regarding Brad - that wonderful movies does show a new side of him, and he did a fantastic job. It's just that he's up against, well, Lincoln! DDL will win.

    I've heard that Amour is the most depressing film on the planet. I think Oscar likes to nominate films like that to prove they are actually much deeper than all the fluff and frilly stuff, but come on! That movie, so I've hard, will put us all on antidepressants.

    I so want to see Life of Pi but haven't yet.

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    1. DDL for Best Actor. Got it! When they release the movie version of "Too Close for Comfort," I promise I will go see it in the theater.

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  5. Okay, I'm no expert, but here's my picks:

    Best Actor: I'm with Lynne. DDL Although I haven't seen the film.
    Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence. Haven't seen Silver Linings either, but want to. How about a date and we go see it?
    Best Film: Either Argo (loved!) or Lincoln (uh, that Mr. Spielberg is like genius, right?)

    BTW, I loved Django Unchained! Quentin is also genius. Good luck! Do you dress up to attend G&M's party? Oh, and as usual you made me laugh out loud. :) Love your Mondays!

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    1. I'm down for a date to see SLP! I will even buy you a cupcake beforehand.

      We do dress up for G&M's party. Not quite red-carpet fancy, but I do try to bring it up a notch from my usual uniform of sweatshirt and pajama pants.

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  6. Lincoln was excellent, but the ending's kind of a downer...

    And there you have the entire breadth of my Oscar movie personal experience. Planning to see Beasts and Life of Pi and Silver Lining. Les Mis, eventually. Would also like to see Argo.

    Had lunch with some business contacts and some convers ensued regarding the hairpiece Affleck wore during Argo. But what I and my sick compadre heard/translated was that AFLAC (as in, the annoying duck in the commercials) was wearing a hairpiece. Now whenever I see either an ad for Argo OR an ad for said insurance co, I envision _the AFLAC duck_ wearing a long 70's style wig., and start cracking up. (Or should that be quacking up?)

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    1. "Quacking up!" Too funny! But now I'm pretty sure I can't see "Argo." Sorry Ben.

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  7. I've only seen three of the nine films nominated this year for best film. Sorry to all of the Lincoln fans but the film was a little too heavy handed for my taste. I liked Silver Linings Playbook a lot but I think it might have too many truly fun moments for the super-serious academy. Regarding Les Miserables, is it just me or does the emperor have no clothes? I cannot believe all of the accolades this snooze fest received! I did think that both Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman were very good in their roles.

    Having said all of that, I think that Argo may win. I've heard from many a jaded moviegoer that it was fantastic.

    Thanks for the blog post Samanthe. I always enjoy them.

    Julia

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    1. I heard from an inside source, (okay, make that Christine, who viewed the broadcast), that ARGO won the SAG for Best Picture, so I think you might be right. SLP seems to be a lot of people's favorite picture, but...

      Thanks for commenting!

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