The Road to Recovery

It’s a very public secret that I’ve been under the weather as of late.  I’ve complained, moaned, fussed, and been generally acting like an infant with how unpleasant I’ve been feeling.  

To fight a bit of the cabin fever I’ve revisited some movies that I had not bonded with in a long time.  To those movie in which fell under this and still currently fall under this category my apologies.  To those who I throughly enjoyed catching up with it was my pleasure and I can’t wait to do it again.

I started revisiting with some comedies.  First up both Airplane movies.  What great laughs these brought growing up.  It had been, with shame I say, a couple of years, since I had seen either movie.  Proudly though I was able to quote along with the dialogue.  All the same factors stood true when I bonded again with Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  

From a trio of comedy I spent some time at the Bates Motel.  Psycho was next up in the player.  A film that never gets old.  Wish I could say the same when I started watching some of the sequels but luckily portions of those coincided with nap time.

My horror arrow was straightened when I put the immortal The Shining on.  Also played well with the snow outside.

Since it is Oscar season I revisited Monster.  Charlize Theron won her Oscar for her performance during my first Oscar party some odd decade ago now.  I had forgotten the power that movie brought.  It was well worth another viewing after all this time. 

I also made some new friends re-watching new additions to my collection with The Butler, In A World, and the incredible Fruitvale Station.  All were good and sprinkled in while visiting old friends.  As I continue my recovery (and after), which is thankfully happening, I plan to revisit other titles in which to much time has lapsed.

The Return of the Oscars

Something happened this morning, that excited me.  At approximately 8:30 this morning the nominees for the 86th Annual Academy Awards were announced.  I am huge fan of the Oscars and had been eagerly awaiting the announcement for some time.

Typical introductions of the Academy president and a celebrity co-presenter started the affair. 

Now over it comes time for the Supporting Actor nominees.  Of these five nominees there was one surprise for me and that was the nomination of Jonah Hill for The Wolf of Wall Street.  After great work in Moneyball I’m glad he’s on his second Oscar nomination but it surprises me when comedians get nominated, especially since his films in between were pretty much low brow humor.  This is outside of his cameo in last year’s Django Unchained.

Then comes supporting actress.  I’m glad to see Jennifer Lawrence back at the Oscars and love that June Squibb was nominated for Nebraska.  I thought her scenes were uniquely funny and well written.  That’s why I’m glad to see the movie also was nominated for best Original Screenplay.

The screenplay nominations were next to be announced.  Woody Allen returned to the mix with Blue Jasmine and that’s nothing out of the ordinary.  What I loved is seeing Before Midnight and Dallas Buyers Club both get screen writing nominations.  Both I thought were well written and had a distinct voice that came from the screenplay.

Then Chris Hemsworth announced the animated feature nominees.  No surprises.  I wanted Monsters University to get a nomination but that’s more my own love for the movie then the quality of it.  Frozen and The Croods are both well made movies that tell a good story and deserve to be nominees more.

Moving on to documentary feature as announced by Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs.  This category was bookended with two nominees that pleased me.  The Act of Killing and Twenty Feet From Stardom are both great nominees and I would love to see The Act of Killing take the award, now that Stories We Tell is snubbed.

Best Picture Nominees

Directors had their moment in the sun.  Alexander Payne (Nebraska) was an unexpected but pleasant inclusion among a strong group of nominees.  All five nominated films were greatly directed by five directors greatly established in film making.

Lead actor and actress were next.  Nothing surprised me in the lead actress category. I am excited that Matthew McConaughey joins Dallas Buyers Club co-star and supporting actor nominee Jared Leto among this years nominated performers.  Also Leonardo Dicaprio returns as a nominee for The Wolf of Wall Street.  It’s a worthy performance but it means Robert Redford gets the boot for his work in All is Lost, a performance I thought was certain to win.  I enjoy the category opening up a bit now.

Finally the best picture nominees.  For the third year in a row nine films were nominated.  No surprises in the nominations of Gravity, American Hustle,12 Years A Slave, or Dallas Buyers Club.  Captain Phillips, Nebraska and The Wolf of Wall Street’s nominations for picture were pleasant surprises.  The two nominated movies that caught me off guard are Her and Philomena.  I enjoyed both movies and was glad to see them get nominations for writing and Philomena earn Judi Dench a nomination for Best Actress.  The inclusion of both are a plus in my book.

So with all that I look forward to the Oscars, when Ellen Degeneres returns to host 86th annual academy awards.