A Movie, A Book and more Off the Cuff

Spring Breakers.  Tampa is loaded with rockin' bare breasted party animals.  It turns out not to be such a great party after all, but along the way we've got a pulsating sound track and some great music from Chris Martinez (Traffic).  And along comes James Franco in a wild and exhilarating performance.
The book, Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver is a must-read.  It pits the scientists/environmentalists with the locals in a poor Appalachian town to grapple with a huge influx of butterflies that get off course due to climate changes and settle in trees that are being considered for a presumed money-making logging venture.
Off the Cuff:  "If you don't follow your dreams, you're just like a cow in the field." Werner Herzog

Ryan Gosling, Mad Men and New Addition to this Blog

Ryan Gosling is the most magnetic actor out there right now.  Go see The Place Beyond The Pines.  It is not an A movie, and the reason will be obvious when you see this film.  I'd still give it a good solid B, however.  Mad Men is off to a rousing start as it keeps a firm hold on the best tv series going.  After touting The Good Wife, I've been extremely disappointed in the most recent shows.  I sure hope they can get back that grit with episodes that raise complicated moral issues instead of the current drivel. 
I'm going to add an Off the Cuff entry to this blog, which I expect to regularly appear.  First entry here is:
Do you know what good friends do?   They shoot the shit.

TV series, 2 disappointments, 2 good and 1 special, and ++movie

Smash and Justified are not holding up to their last seasons.  As for Smash where is the compelling issue, like who is going to get the Marilyn role?  The writing also is not as crisp.  Justified is suffering in similar ways.  Let's get it back yáll, please!  These two shows both had too much promise.  Two excellent tv series that are holding up as well as ever:  Real Time with Bill Maher and The Good Wife.  Also, Girls has clearly established  Lena Dunham as a fresh and extraordinary new talent.  This is a must-see series, however serious viewing issues arise for teenagers and younger.  As for a good movie, try The Gatekeepers, an Oscar-nominated documentary, about the Israeli security forces.  Enlightening in terms of the incredible difficulties involved in the continuing terrorism.  Tragic as to "collateral damages".  Hopeful?  Flimsy, at best.  An engrossing movie, nevertheless.

Post Oscar Splash

Oscar party was pretty good, I thought.  My most exciting moment was when Searching for Sugarman won Best Documentary.  There were some looks by stars that I thought were appalling -  George Clooney and Ben Affleck sported those incredibly ugly beards, especially Clooney.  Ugh!!  As for the women, I think Kerry Washington, a talent with potential beauty, has gone for the scrawny, emaciated look.  Why, why does this look persist?  I really don't get it.  Lara Flynn Boyle comes to mind. 

Oscar Time

Top 10
The Master
Silver Linings Playbook
Searching for Sugarman
Argo 
Beasts of the Southern Wild
The Late Quartet
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty 
Polisse
Central Park Five

Honorable Mention
Take This Waltz
Promised Land 
Killer Joe
Bernie

Best TV Series/Shows
Homeland
Mad Men
Real Time with Bill Maher
Smash
The Killing
The Good Wife
Boardwalk Empire

Best Cast
Silver Linings Playbook

Best Song (and most blunt)
I Wonder from Searching for Sugarman

Best Freckles
Eddie Redmayne in Les Miserables


Best Scene
Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook dancing to Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash singing Dylan's song, Girl from the North Country.

Oscar Nominations - OMG!!!

What?  The Master did not get nominated as one of the 10 best pictures of 2012 and no best director nor best cinematography nods?  Outrageous!  And what about The Late Quartet and a nod to Christopher Walken?  And neither Kathyrn Bigelow nor Ben Afleck were nominated??  The Oscar show can't mean much this year because of these oversights.

5 Holiday Season Movies

Django Unchained - An extremely bloody and gory slave revenge fantasy.  C+
Promised Land - A good, solid movie about fracking with Matt Damon and Francis McDormand.  B
Impossible - The horrors and anguish (continual) of the southeast Asia tsunami, based upon a true story. C+
Les Miserables - A long, but sometimes compelling musical with the astounding Hugh Jackman, etal, including oncoming and dazzling new star, Eddie Redmayne.   B-
The Central Park Five - An astonishing film about a total miscarriage of justice.  Frightening in many ways.  B+.