Movie: The Kings Speech & 127 Hours

We watched The King's Speech this weekend.  We really liked the movie.  That said, I don't think it should have gotten Best Picture (note: I haven't seen all the Best Picture nominees yet).  I'm okay with it beating Social Network, Toy Story 3, Kids are All Right, The Fighter, and 127 Hours.  I think Inception and Winter's Bone were both better overall films though.  I still hope to see True Grit and Black Swam is on it's way via Netflix now. 

Colin Firth was really great and, I think, deserved the Academy Award for Best Actor.  In my mind, however, if James Franco had won for 127 Hours I wouldn't have been upset.  I really liked The Social Network, but I really don't think it's Best Picture or Best Actor material.  I've heard great things about Biutiful and True Grit, so I guess I should hold off on any final declarations.

Back to The King's Speech...I do not think Geoffery Rush or Helena Bonham Carter should have been nominated.  I enjoyed both of their performances, but not as best of the year.  I have seen all the Best Supporting Actor movies and Christian Bale was clearly the best choice.  For Best Supporting Actress, I thought Melissa Leo was good and should have beaten HBC and Amy Adams (whom I don't think warranted nomination).  Jacki Weaver was not prominant in Animal Kingdom, but in 2 scenes I thought she was serenely frightening and evil.  I guess I should see True Grit before I'm 100% on this one.

127 Hours was really amazing.  It must be so incredibly difficult to be in a movie essentially by yourself, a la Tom Hanks in Cast Away.  While I do think James Franco probably has similar personal qualities as Aron Ralston and there might be parts of the character that were not such a stretch, I was still really impressed by what it took him to pull this off.  The key scene was really tough to watch and actually I shut my eyes and didn't really watch it.  Ew.  I also would have loved some DVD extras on this, like an interview with the real Aron Ralston, a summary of where he is now (other than married with a child which was cool but not enough info!), what the girls he saw before he disappeared or his co-worker or family thought about while he was gone and when he returned, etc.

Looking forward to Black Swam coming on Netflix and both Kung Fu Panda 2 and Cars 2 coming to the theater soon!

Movie: An Education

We watched this last night and both enjoyed it. Carey Mulligan was really very good. I can see why she got the nomination for Best Actress. I don't think she should have won, but I think her performance was so subtle. She crossed naive with a mature potential that was just so interesting. I like Peter Sarsgaard...good role for him.

Movie: The Blind Side

Okay, okay, I enjoyed this movie. But, I still hold that Sandra Bullock DID NOT deserve a best actress Oscar for this. She was good, but REALLY? Against Meryl Streep as Julia Child??? I didn't think Gabourey Sidibe should get it for Precious - that was an intense and well done movie, but not quite Best Acress material, in my opinion. I haven't seen An Education (it's on the list though) or The Last Station (Helen Mirren was nominated for this).

The movie was really inspirational, good sports story, a little hokey, but I liked Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw as the parents a lot. I didn't cry, miraculously. You have to love that it's a true story.

Movies: Fantastic Mr Fox & The Informant!

Last week I watched Fantastic Mr Fox while I was on my forced relaxation and Joe and I watched The Informant! together. He wasn't really into watching FMF since we just watched Where the Wild Things Are...bad Netflix timing on my part...2 "kid" movies at one time was not a good plan.

LOVED FMF - I have really enjoyed Wes Andersons other movies, for the most part, but this one might be my favorite. George Clooney as Mr Fox was, indeed, fantastic. I have to say I liked him more in this than in Up in the Air (sorry, Chris :) ). He was witty, charming, quick, and the writing, as expected, was perfect. It was not really a kids movie (although Shelagh and Rory did watch the end with me and Rory was laughing along). It was cartoon/claymation or something like that, but it was adult-themed. It didn't have any bad language or nudity or sexual themes at all. It did have a bit of violence - gun shots, shot off tail, a little blood, but nothing my kids can't handle now that they are knee-deep in the Clone Wars (more on that later). This was great - add it to your list!

The Informant! was okay. I fell asleep, but it was late and I was tired and on sleep medication. Matt Damon was a pretty good compulsive liar. The chick who played his wife was WAY annoying...maybe it was her dumb haircut and lame clothes. Who knows. The dude from Quantum Leap played his FBI counterpart and was decent (Scott Bakula?) - also a dumb haircut that was distracting. Good plot, but overall slow.

Next up, The Blind Side. I have zero interest in this movie other than the fact that SB won the Oscar for what looks like a mediocre role. Joe likes sports movies and wants to see it. I have to see how far off her winning was so that I'm annoyed based on fact and not on presumption (I'm thinking this is akin to Julia Roberts winning for Erin Brockovich which still annoys me x years later). I'm legit like that. Plus, I have a ridiculous curiosity about her b/c of what is going on in her personal life (like we know the truth anyway). I, unlike other people who said "this was going to happen", liked the idea that she found love with someone totally unexpected and that she turned his world around. I'm bummed for her and the kids. I wanted to think he was way cool and grown up after having met her. Oh well. Maybe Bombshell McGee is lying about the whole thing. Crazy bitch.

Movies: Where the Wild Things Are & W

Where the Wild Things Are: I thoroughly enjoyed this movie despite falling asleep a few times. That doesn't mean anything bad these days, it's pure tiredness not boredom. The little actor that played Max was wonderful. The music contributed perfectly to the sort of melancholy mood of the movie. I really didn't get how they would mix the fantasy and reality of the book let alone make a whole movie out of a book with few pages and words. But Spike Jonze did a great job...it blended so well and was very touching. Really liked it.

W: I like most Oliver Stone movies...certainly Platoon and Natural Born Killers is one of my favorites ever. I thought this movie was interesting. It was obviously not an impartial accounting of George Bush and his life before and during his presidency, but who expected that? I didn't love Elizabeth Banks as Laura (although I really like her). I thought Josh Brolin captured Bushes mannerisms and general appearance pretty well. The movie was too long. I didn't love who they cast for Colin Powell, but Richard Dreyfus as Cheney, the guy they picked for Karl Rove, and the woman playing Condaleeza Rice were all pretty good. The movie didn't quite do it for me, but it wasn't terrible either.

Movie: Precious

Wow, was this intense. Mo'Nique TOTALLY deserved the win for this. It was really a horrifying story, but quite touching. I give a big recommend on this one. We did watch it in green and red, unfortunately. I bought a new DVD player so I guess it's got to be something wrong with the receiver. The TV is fine when watching live, so it can't be that. So frustrating...Shouldn't receivers last forever?

Movie: Up in the Air

We watched Up in the Air with George Clooney and Vera Farmiga this weekend and both liked it, probably me a bit more than Joe. However, Oscar-worthy??? Don't think so. The writing was solid, the story was semi-original (with a little bit of hokey-predictable woven in, which was ok - not everything can be "Memento"/"Fight Club"/"Usual Suspects" original...I'm not that snobby about it). The music wasn't memorable. I liked the small parts from Danny McBride (who I don't think will be anything other than Eastbound and Down for me forever) and from Jason Bateman, who just excels at sarcastic, dry, dickhead type guys.

I'm glad George didn't get nominated...he did get rave reviews for his role. Don't get me wrong, I thought he was good, but don't you get the impression that his portrayal was just "George Clooney charming"? It didn't seem like that much of a stretch to me. Not that I know that he is truely charming in real life or anything. You just get that idea that he is a charming flirty kind of guy with a lot of charisma that people generally like. I thought Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick were quite enjoyable to watch; but, again, not worthy of an Academy Award in my humble opinion. So, I'm glad they didn't win. Jason Reitman really is kicking ass so far...Thank You for Smoking, Juno, and now this. I look forward to continuing to see his films into the future - also, he looks like Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters so I like him just for that.

I will note that we enjoyed this movie despite the fact that our DVD is broken and all movies are displaying in red and green only. This worked for Brotherhood (the series we just finished) since it is telling the story of an Irish Family and it was St Patricks Day. This does not work moving forward and I just have to get off my lazy ass and get a new player and recycle this one. It's irritating.

Update: I stand corrected, Clooney did get nominated. Thank you, Chris. I reiterate my opinion that he didn't deserve it. Not that it wasn't good or he wasn't good. I just don't think it was much of a stretch.

Movie: Observe and Report

Continuing on my pledge to post more culture bits and try to write something about each movie we've seen...

Observe and Report with Seth Rogan was good, but not great, I'd say. It's a dark comedy and certainly had a few laughs and a few WOW-caught-me-off-guard moments. I do like Seth R and have enjoyed pretty much everything else he's been in - I don't think he's acting much - I think he just has funny mannerisms and his voice and tone are funny.

Ray Liotta was in it and I've concluded that he hasn't done much of anything decent since Good Fellas. I just confirmed that on IMDb (unless you count Operation Dumbo Drop as something solid). Now, talk about hitting it out of the park....but not much since then. The part he had in O & R could have been anyone - it bums me out to see someone that does such a phenomenal job in a beloved movie then have crappy bit parts playing boring, nondescript characters. Poor Henry Hill.

Anna Faris is in this also. I haven't seen her in much - didn't see the Scary Movies and hadn't really heard of her until her guest stint on Entourage. She's supposed to be notable in The House Bunny, but I can't bring myself to watch that movie about a playboy model and sorority house. I'm not sorority-biased (go UVM Pi Phi!), but the whole concept of sororities is always portrayed so badly in movies. Just seems silly.

Anyhoo, I'd say watch it if it's on, but don't bump it up your Netflix list or anything. I would like to mention that Netflix rules, if I haven't made note of that in awhile. I had Star Wars Phantom Menace at the top of my list as available and no wait. The local distribution center didn't have it, so they sent me Observe & Report instead and then ALSO sent me Star Wars from another center even though my DVD quota was already met. Extra DVD. How nice is that? We recently reduced from 3 at a time to 2 at a time and with a TV show and 1 movie home, it's nice not to waste our movie slot with something we need to make time to watch with the kids.

Movie: Inglorious Basterds

Joe and I watched this latest Tarantino movie this past weekend. It came in at 2 1/2 hours. Classic Tarantino - check. Blood and super-gross body chopping scenes - check. Decent music - check. Good cast - check. All in all, I'd say it's good but not amongst his best.

Once again, point of reference on Q T. Here is how I'd rank his films...

1. Natural Born Killers
2. Resevoir Dogs
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Kill Bill
5. True Romance - I haven't seen this in awhile, maybe it would be higher, but hard to say.
6. From Dusk to Dawn (Joe continues to make fun of me for liking this movie, but I did. Same for Desperado. I just liked them. Can't explain why.).

Not so much

1. Jackie Brown
2. Didn't care to see Grindhouse

My thoughts on Inglorious Basterds:

• I did not love Brad Pitt in this movie. For a team of rogue Jewish American soldiers sent over to assassinate Nazi's, why the Southern Hick team leader? Didn't work for me. I love BP usually, but take him or leave him this time.
• The ending was kick ass awesome. You never see an "alternative ending" to a WWII movie and this one was the bomb. GO, my people!
• The heroine, Shoshanna, was awesome and the reason the ending was so cool - she had a wizard behind the curtain moment that was goose-bumpy. Clearly she was the best actor in the film.
• Eli Roth represented Bostons accent well (so said Joe). I think he might be from Boston, but all I could think about while watching him was that he wrote Hostel (which was one of the grossest - but still good - movies I've ever seen) and that he looks so much like Zachary Quinto it's creepy (Sylar from Heroes and Spock in the new Star Trek movie).
• Happy to see BJ Novak (Ryan the intern) from the Office get a nice bit part. He did well. Dry and effective.
• Didn't see the trademark QT cameo - did I miss it?
• As has been written about primarily in relation to this movie, Christoph Waltz, who plays the main Nazi, was so uncomfortably evil and unsettling. You'd think that was a given in Nazi movies, but he did stand out. A shining star along with the Shoshanna character.

That's it for now. Next up on the queue is Brotherhood Season 3, Observe and Report, and Julie and Julia.

Last 10 Netflix Movies

I've been seriously anti-pop culture lately so I figure I should try to catch up. Here are my last 10 Netflix movies and thoughts:

1. The Other Boleyn Girl - It was ok. I just couldn't get past the backwards casting of Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. Scarlett did okay as Mary Boleyn, but Natalie just did not portray conniving/manipulating/voluptuous/seductive quite like I think Scarlett would have. Also, Eric Bana was just an okay King Henry. I watch The Tudors on Showtime and the casting on that show, while I seriously doubted it at the beginning, really grew on me and Jonathon Rhys Meyers really plays a kick-ass crazy/temperamental/arrogant King Henry. Eric Bana sucked in Troy too...he just doesn't do it for me. Actually, he was good in Munich, but that's it.
2. Snow Angels - This was good, but tough to watch as there is a little girl tragic accident involved that is just so heart-wrenching. Kate Beckinsale was good and I liked Sam Rockwell. I want to like him so badly, but the movies he's in never quite get there.
3. Tropic Thunder - I thought this was just so-so. I did agree that Tom Cruises cameo was very funny (although worthy of a Golden Globe nomination? I don't know about that). RDJr was good and I seriously forgot it was him several times. But, Ben Stiller can just be so annoying sometimes (reminiscent of his awkward character, Michael, in Reality Bites)
4. Firefly - last Disc of only Season. I liked this TV series. It was one of those 1 season TV shows on some random cable channel that got great reviews but got cancelled anyway. They ended up making a follow up movie called Serenity that I'll definitely watch now (see To Do List for Maternity Leave post coming up). It was sort of a cowboy Sci-Fi show if you can imagine that. Great characters. Nathan Fillion has this ugly-hot thing going for him a la Joaquin Phoenix (I don't think he has quite the same hair lip but it's similar) that is appealing.
5. Reservation Road - Also a disturbing child accident movie, but I just love Mark Ruffalo and Joaquin Phoenix. Jennifer Connelly also was so wonderful in this movie. Very emotional, but totally worth a watch.
6. 21 - This was that MIT students tricking Las Vegas movie. I liked it. Joe read the book so we had an idea about it before we watched. I thought it was pretty entertaining overall.
7. Leatherheads - Blah, blah. Not terrible, but not anything special. Reinforces my annoyance with Renee Zellweger. Usually I almost avoid anything she is in, but I wanted to see Jim Krasinski on the big screen and see if he has any potential outside of the office (jury is still out on that one).
8. Indiana Jones/ Crystal Skull - Wasn't into it. I think Joe liked it more than me.
9. Iron Man - This was a solid, superhero movie. I thought it was really action-packed, RDJr was great, as I had heard. The effects were cool, story was okay and overall I was in the whole time.
10. Nims Island - A friend recommended this for the kids and while I would have thought it was a bit much for them (and parts were), they talked about it for days afterwards.

Not too much good coming up either...As usual, I haven't seen anything nominated for a Golden Globe and will have to rush through all of those soon. Here's what we have at home now.

1. Strangers with Candy (Amy Sedaris)
2. Incredible Hulk - Joe watched this on the train down to NJ last weekend so I'll have to squeeze it in when he's not around.
3. Kung Fu Panda - We saw this in the theater with the kids, but I'll watch it with them again for Family Movie night this weekend. They loved it and it was Rorys first movie in the theater.

Friday Night Lights

Our summer TV project for this year has been decided. Previous years have included Alias Seasons 1-5 and The Shield Seasons 1-3 (We watched Season 4 first and then went back). We've heard great things about Friday Night Lights. Hopefully it won't be cancelled by the time we complete the past seasons as it's been teetering on the verge for the last year or so I think. Don't all the best shows get cancelled? (Arrested Development, Freaks and Geeks to name 2). Last night we put in Season 1, DVD 1 which had Episodes 1-4. The pilot episode was awesome. The film style is almost documentary-like. You are immediately attached to the characters, especially the Coach and his wife. The frenzy of football in the community is like celebrity stalking. It's non-stop and overwhelms everything. No one is interested in talking to the Coach and his family about anything else. It's the most important topic of conversation everywhere - in school, on the radio, at restaurants, at social gatherings, etc. Nothing is taken more seriously.

Needless to say, we got sucked in and, yes, we watched all 4 episodes in a row. That was 177 minutes of Friday Night Lights in 1 sitting from the time the kids went to bed until almost midnight. I expected we'd watch 2 episodes, but then "what was 1 more?" and then "if we watch the last one, we can return the DVD before the weekend for the 2nd DVD of Season 1". Why the hell not. I'm quite tired this morning...

Movie: Dan in Real Life

I loved this movie! As with most movies that get a mediocre or higher review, it made it's way onto my Netflix list when it came out in the movies and I forgot about it until it popped up recently. I wasn't dying to see it, but there isn't much exciting on there right now and it had to be a little funny, right? What a pleasant surprise. I have to say that while I do watch The Office religiously, I do not care too much for Steve Carrell. I think it's the ridiculously dumb characters, such as the one he played in Anchorman, that I can't stand (I otherwise loved that movie, but he ALMOST ruined it for me). I don't love his Michael on The Office, but I love the whole ensemble cast so I still tune in every week. Little Miss Sunshine was the 1st exception for me relating to him. He played "dark" and deadpan so well in that movie...I just loved him in that and that was the only work of his I could speak of well. Didn't love 40-Year Old Virgin. Am holding out hope for Get Smart.

Dan in Real Life was a wonderful movie. Despite the fact that Dane Cook was in it (we turned off Good Luck Chuck after about 10 minutes), it was funny, it was heartbreaking, it was warm, it was just really well done. Both Joe and I enjoyed it much more than we thought. The cast was good all around. I wasn't sold on Steve Carrell playing against Juliette Binoche (weird, right?), but it worked. The music was out of this world! We watched a little feature about the music and how the composer was selected and how he created the original score for the film and I think I'm going to download it. His music sounded similar to Glen what's-his-name from the movie Once that I wrote about recently. It was so moving and I kept finding myself thinking about the music as the movie was running, which I don't often do.

Anyway, 2 people I've recommended it to at work both thought it was just okay. I completely disagree. Joe thought it was like The Family Stone a bit. I didn't think it was the best movie, but it was fine. The stories were similar (new girlfriend meeting the big, close family for the first time) and, ironically, that movie was on TV last night by chance and we watched a few minutes before going to bed. Dan in Real Life was ten times better in my opinion. Even with a lukewarm reaction by my co-workers, I stand by my recommendation.

UPDATE: Soundtrack is AWESOME! Both Joe and I have been walking around singing one of the songs. Love it.

Movies: Atonement & The Loss of the DVR...

Our DVR died. Despite Shelagh being DEVASTED at the loss of our Super Why! collection (it's not in On Demand for some reason, so we had taped a bunch for the kids to watch while I make dinner), it sometimes is a relief when that happens. It happened once before and we had back episodes of a few shows that we were wavering on (24, 30 Days, etc) so it just confirmed that we were done with them which was a good thing.


This time we lost a few eps of Dirt (a guilty pleasure as are most FX shows, but I do like it); We Are Marshall which I was 1/2-way done with; and Reds which we had watched about a 1/3 of and were so-so with anyway. The biggest loss was all the Series we had set up to record. We had to have over 20 set up and b/c we mostly watch TV out of the DVR and not necessarily on the night the shows come on, it took me a bit to figure out what to reset on the new machine (which arrived the next day I am happy to report). I would like to note that we don't watch 20 shows all at once, but rather HBO, Showtime, and FX have shows we like year round for shorter time periods (well that's me rationalizing my TV habit, I guess, but it is what it is). We missed taping Mad Men this week - bummed about that. We are both really enjoying that show - they are replaying Season 1 on AMC now so we're catching up on it and will be back in for Season 2. We were able to watch The Office and 30 Rock online last night. Loved the Jim and Pam stuff by the way. They are really doing a nice job managing that relationship while keeping things light and not focusing whole episodes to it. It's just kind of going on in the background. More Kelly Kapoor please!


Netflix saves the day! We watched Atonement this week and both liked it. I didn't read the book but I generally knew what it was about beforehand. I had read a couple of interviews with Keira Knightley and James McAvoy and was looking forward to seeing both of them in it. It seemed really well cast - the 3 Briony's were all wonderful. The love scene was powerful and intense and the loss was really well played out. That green dress was insanely beautiful...I couldn't stop staring at it...the color, the low back, the draping...it was completely eye-catching. It reminded me of the play of green in Great Expectations (Gwyneth Paltrow/Ethan Hawke), which I thought was an underrated movie by the way. There was something about the director and the color green in that movie and after reading about that it's all I could think about watching it. Kind of the same thing with Atonement...the dress just took over like it's own character. There were a few slow parts in the movie, but all in all I would recommend it.

Movies: Into the Wild and There Will Be Blood

We watched these in the last week and liked both of them!

Into the Wild: This was a beautiful movie. It was sad and you felt so lonely for the main character, but the scenery and music were so good and I found myself feeling inspired and having admiration for him. Emile Hirsch reminded me a bit of Tom Hanks in Cast Away. The vital difference being, of course, that the Tom Hanks character didn't mean to get stranded by himself on a desert island and the Emile Hirsch character did mean to go off on his own and live life independently. Plus, I guess in Into the Wild, there was a lot of time devoted to his journey to get to his independence and the few people he did meet and befriend. The intensity of his hatred for his parents and what they represent was disturbing to see played out. As a parent it's scary to see a possible outcome with your child that is so terrifying and can lead to such a sad ending. Anyway, despite it's sad ending (which most people know at the beginning, so sorry if I'm spoiling a bit) and the extreme disgust he has for his parents, it was kind of inspirational to see him pursue his dream with such intensity and determination. The music is awesome too!

There Will Be Blood: Daniel Day-Lewis COMPLETELY deserved Best Actor for this. Holy crap was he fantastic! I was expecting the movie to be very weird as I had read that despite all the praise DDL got that it was strange and off-beat. I didn't think that was the case at all. I did wonder out loud to Joe if perhaps DDL is so damn good that the other actors can't possibly match up in intensity -OR- if the character had that much charisma that the other characters, even with intense portrayals, could never match up in the story and maybe that was part of the point. It came in at 2 hrs 40 mins which is long, but we were good until the very end when we were ready for it to be over. Anyway, highly recommended.

Movies: Michael Clayton and Once

Michael Clayton
We both really liked this movie. Tilda Swinton won the Oscar for best supporting actress. We've now seen 3 out of 5 of the movies in this category (American Gangster, Gone Baby Gone, and Michael Clayton). TS was really good in this movie, but I think I'd still give it to Amy Ryan from Gone Baby Gone. I digress. Clooney was awesome - intense, pained, struggling. Tom Wilkinson did crazy well. Good story, progressed well. Overall a good drama.

Once
This movie was amazing. I had already been listening to the music which is beyond beautiful. The plot is very simple...guy meets girl and girl inspires guy to reengage in his life. The development of their friendship is slow and steady and deep. However, it isn't predictable. It is a simple and touching movie. I won't give it away. I did cry several times...though that doesn't really mean anything b/c I've been known to cry during commercials. It was great to see the music paired with the film and the 2 "making of" extras were really interesting as well. Highly recommended!

Movies: American Gangster, Assassination of Jesse James, Juno

Crazy movie weekend...1 Friday night at home, 1 Saturday night at home, and 1 Sunday at the actual movie theater! You can tell we are the parents of young children with virtually no social life. I was actually looking forward to movies this weekend - from Netflix, we had American Gangster, Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and Michael Clayton. Two out of three of those movies were 2 hours 40 mins long and the 3rd was 2 hours long. Usually, I'm out cold by 10ish, but for some reason I haven't been able to fall asleep lately. I still nod off during a TV show or a movie, but then I lay in bed and don't sleep. Miraculously, I made it through both.


American Gangster
This was a solid movie. You were drawn to both Denzel and Russell Crowe equally...good/bad guy distinction didn't matter. A couple of catch-you-off-guard blood scenes. A bit too long, but good all around.


Assassination of Jesse James
This movie was way too long, but it had it's good points. Casey Affleck redefined "uncomfortable". I was wiggling around in my seat just watching him. He played an awkward, unsure guy and although I don't think he should have won (and he didn't), I was glad to see him nomimated for an Oscar. Brad Pitt is a really great actor too...I don't think this particular character was as meaty as some others he's played, but he's still fun to watch!


Today, my mother in law came down to have breakfast with us and then stayed to watch the kids so we could go to the movies and Home Depot (window blinds shopping). I also squeezed in a quick trip to Target to get a few things for the kids Easter baskets. Yes, I am a Jew shopping for Easter basket stuff and LOVING IT! Joe was with me or else I would have bought my own separate bag of Peanut butter cups and a plethora of Creme Eggs. I restrained myself purely out of embarrassment.


Juno
I loved this movie and was so glad to have finally seen it. It was perfectly cast...Ellen Page, Michael Cera, LOVED the Rainn Wilson cameo - he is so snarky, her parents, the couple, her best friend, everyone. The cartoony intro totally made me think of the part in Reality Bites when Ben Stiller has sold out and MTV'd Winona Ryders film and put her friends pictures on a revolving pizza pie. Cracks me up. There were 2 things that bothered me about the movie that I feel I have to mention.

1. Juno was just too precocious. I love the witty writing, but it's really becoming hip to make the teenaged character smarter than anyone you know. Who talks like that?
2. The tangent with Juno and Mark where he is set to leave his wife and hints at Juno being part of the reason or that she might be interested in his doing that really skeeved me out. I liked watching the 2 characters find common ground and even inspire each other, but it never felt sexual to me and I don't think the inappropriateness of this worked on any level. They still could have had Juno represent what he didn't have and wanted in his marriage without it crossing the line and it would have worked just as well.

I swear I'm working on getting a life! We have a babysitter one night this week to go out to dinner with friends.

Movie: Margot at the Wedding

My friend visiting me and I watched Margot at the Wedding last night with a nice bottle of red wine. I really loved this movie. Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh play sisters with a complicated relationship coming together after a long period of not having seen each other. Nicole Kidman is the older sister who is more rigid, thinks things should be a certain way, is more judgemental, and more standoffish. JJL is the younger sister who is more carefree and looks up to her sister yet also slightly resents her and feels sorry for her. It was a fascinating depiction of the complexity and subtle intricacy that is the connection between sisters. It reminded me a bit of the movie Hilary and Jackie, another great movie about the sister bond. This movie just really got at the raw nerves that sisters can aggravate in each other; yet simultaneously, there is no one in the world that understands what you've come from like that person. Anyway, it was intense, but also light (thank you, Jack Black) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Movie: Candy

I'm embarrassed to report that I spent over an hour on Facebook last night. Doing what? Who knows. There is not much do on there, yet once again I looked up and too much time had gone by. Answering messages, writing on walls, poking, looking at pictures, and - my favorite - taking silly and random movie quizzes.

Then I watched Candy, a movie Heath Ledger made after Brokeback Mountain. It was about a couple who are heroin addicts and just completely come apart. It was an intense and really well done movie. It reminded me a bit of Rush (another great couple-stuck-in-addiction drug movie), but with less drama. Both Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish did a superb job...It was really more about their relationship while falling into and being stuck in addiction. I hadn't heard of her before, other than hearing she might have been involved with Ryan Phillippe when he and Reese Witherspoon broke up. She's coming out with some films soon too, so I look forward to seeing her more. Anyway, I recommend it although I think it's on Long Wait on Netflix right now due to the untimely death of HL.

Movie: Gone, Baby, Gone

We watched this last night with my parents (they are up visiting). This was based on a book by Dennis Lehane who wrote Mystic River also. It was intense and wonderful. I find it so hard to watch movies about children since I've had kids...the thought of your child being taken is just too much to even think about. I was hesitant to watch this b/c of that, but I was able to watch it mostly without being too torn up...the focus was not on the child per se but on following the trail to her. I definintely had moments of being nauseated watching Amy Ryan play a terrible mother and neglect her daughter. She's in the Wire so I was happy to see her cast in this and get so recognized (Oscar nom for Best Supporting). She did a great job - I hope she wins. Casey Affleck was great also...nice to see him getting some juicy roles. The Assassination of Jesse James (for which he was nominated as well) is next on our Netflix list. Ed Harris was in it and Morgan Freeman who were awesome as usual. This was Ben Afflecks first time directing and I think he just did such a good job. I'm glad to see him shake his I've-done-too-many-movies-everyone-is-sick-of-me thing. Highly recommended.

Movie: A Mighty Heart

We watched A Mighty Heart on Friday night. We both enjoyed it and thought Angelina Jolie did a wonderful job along with all the supporting cast. That being said, I didn't think it was worth the Golden Globe nomination. There was one incredibly moving scene when she finds out that her husband didn't make it (yes...I bawled), but I don't think that was enough for the nomination. It's movies like this that make me realize how apathetic I am about what is going on around me in the world (for more examples of this phenomenon see also Blood Diamond, Hotel Rwanda, and The Last King of Scotland). I knew about Daniel Pearl being held captive for a month, but I had no idea how hard Marianne Pearl and the other journalists and local police worked together to trace him and his contacts. Nor did I realize how close they came to getting to him before he was executed. It was a moving story and you just feel devasted for Marianne Pearl and their son, Adam, who was born a couple of months afterwards. It was a tad too long, but I suppose it's hard to cut things out when you are telling a true story; especially one adapted from a book written by the person going through it. Also, when you are dealing with a movie taking place in a foreign country with foreign names, it's harder to follow (this also happens to me with books where I make up my own pronunciation for foreign names and usually skip them all together). I highly recommend it.

As much as I should take this feeling of apathy and decide moving forward to be better about reading the newspaper, I won't. I will continue to waste my Sunday away reading Entertainment Weekly and People. And, my camp alumnae newsletter. And, playing with my kids and our nieces who slept over last night. And, watching Cars and Super Why with my kids. Productive.