The Academy Awards are in just over a week now, and I am trying to see as many of the films as possible. When last we discussed this subject, I had seen seven out of ten best picture nominees, and a few of the other movies as well. Over the past few weeks, I have been cramming. Here’s how I’ve been doing.
I have now seen nine of the ten nominees for best picture. Only 127 Hours to go. My only problem is that I don’t really want to see it. I mean, I’m sure it is a great movie, but… Well, we’ll see. I can tell you now that Winter’s Bone is not a porn flick, nor is it the heartwarming story of a dog named Winter on a quest for his missing bone. It is a depressing portrait of rural poverty that, from what I’ve heard, is scarily accurate. It was good, but man… Not a feel good flick, that’s for sure.
I’ve also seen The Kids Are All Right. Now this I really enjoyed. It was funny, it was heartbreaking, and it was real. What I liked about it was that it focused on a marriage, whereas most movies end with a wedding or proposal like that is the end of the story. There is a lot more life and relationship that goes on after the meet/cute, and it was nice to see some of it on screen.
When I am not watching best picture nominees, I am trying to see the rest of the nominees in other categories. For our Valentine’s Day date, Simone and I had to choose between Blue Valentine and The Illusionist. Even though it had the word Valentine in the title, we thought The Illusionist would be a little lighter fare for a romantic date. Boy, I don’t think we had any good options here. The Illusionist was a little…slow. And depressing. Sort of. I don’t know what it was, but I really did think Tangled was a better film. Oh well.
Finally, we rented The Town, which has a supporting actor nomination, and How to Train Your Dragon, which is up against The Illusionist and Toy Story 3 for best animated feature. I thought The Town was just incredible and how it missed a best picture nod is beyond me. How to Train Your Dragon was also great, but it is obviously impossible to be better than Toy Story 3 this year, so too bad for it.
We still have nine days to go, so I will try and see a few more before the big event, but I feel good about my preparation. It’s tough to see movies when you have little kids, and I am ahead of last year. I don’t know if I will see 127 Hours. I guess I’ll let you know.