Oscar Nominations - OMG!!!

Blue is the Warmest Color and The Past don't get nominated for Best Foreign Language film.  Actually, I just read that The Past didn't qualify in this category because it was first shown after the deadline.  So, why on  earth was it not nominated for Best Picture?  And what about the amazing performance by Adele Exarchopoulos in Blue is the Warmest Color?  And Inequality for All and Muscle Shoals are bypassed for Best Documentary.  These oversights will certainly make the Oscars a lot less interesting for me.

The Past and The Wolf of Wall Street

The Past is a real life and fully engaging movie.  It centers around a woman, her husband, who she wants to divorce, and the man she wants to marry.  I quote now from my good friend, Brooks Roddan:  " I  can't remember seeing a movie in which all the characters were  so admirable in such a human way; I cared for each of them.  Or a movie in which conscience, the thing that separates us from other animals, was so deftly portrayed that it became a character."  We saw the movie together.  Now The Wolf of Wall Street is a Hollywood big glamor movie, like American Hustle, but not as good.  It's about greed and excess to the max and ultimately gets boring.  Now tell me, which of these 2 movies would you rather see?

American Hustle

This is a good movie, not a great movie, and not as good as Silver Linings Playbook.  It is a farce and the plot has a lot of holes.  I guess we're to ignore those.  The cast is extraordinary in this good hair/bad hair movie.  In my opinion the stars, Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner have great hair.  The other 3 stars - let's just call their hair - the craps.  I think Amy Adams deserves an Oscar nod, but none of the others.  Still, I liked this movie even though I think it is getting unjustifiable raves.  At the end of the movie weren't you surprised that all those politicians got arrested?  I thought it would end with all of them dancing on the head of the overzealous IRS agent played by Bradley Cooper.

Duds fo the Year

As for Gravity, it is without emotion, not engaging and boring, and that's all Samoblog has to say about it. Oldboy is absurdly violent.  Someone said this is Spike Lee's best movie since Inside Man.  Now that was one very good movie.  This is one very bad one.  The worst of the year, without question, though, is Out of the Furnace.  With a loaded cast, you'd think this has to be good.  Nope.  It's a dull story with no script.  Yuk.

Dallas Buyers Club and About Time

In Dallas Buyers Club Matthew McConaughey has reached the peak of his acting career (so far).  It's no surprise.  It was apparent as far back as We Are Marshall and Lincoln Lawyer.  He is mesmerizing all the way through here: when you can see him, that is.  He's lost a lot of weight!  The movie is based upon a  real person and a very courageous guy, who goes after drugs that will help him deal with his disease, AIDS, even if they have not been approved in the U.S.   About Time is a love story/comedy.  You've got to stick with this as it is somewhat hokey and involves time travel, a couple of aspects I'm biased against.  As the movie moves on and the great Bill Nighy becomes more of a presence, it becomes more and more engaging and finishes with a powerful message that is typically cliched, but not here, the build-up is so solid and yet unpredictable.

This French film is one of best of the year!

Blue Is The Warmest Color is a deep and honest movie about 3 or so years in the life of a young girl played to nth degree by the astounding young french actress, Adele Exarchopoulos, in the performance of a lifetime, even though she is only 19!  The camera is on her constantly and she doesn't miss a twitch.  It's reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata, with similar camera focus on the great stars, Liv Ullman and Ingrid Bergman.  It seems much of the publicity for Blue is on the intimate and lengthy love scenes between the two main actresses, an important part of the story certainly, but far from more than a part of the arc of this woman's young life, which is so well set out in a long (nearly 3 hours), but most compelling film.

3 Documentaries You Should See

Watching Mohammed Ali's Greatest Fight is to see Ali in his prime.  That incredible combination of brashness and ability with footage of some of his fights and a focus on his battle with the government and his claim of conscious objector status, is something not to be missed, especially for diehard Ali fans.
Muscle Shoals documents the recording studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama in the 70's that were sought out and used by so many of the music stars of the 70s and 80s.  Great music and good interviews with many of these stars.
After Tiller deals with the stories of the few doctors in the country who offer third trimester abortions still, in the face of serious threats and possible death since the brutal killing of George Tiller in Kansas in 2009.