Princess of Power: Movies

My reactions to Oscar [TM, (c) - PLEASE DON'T SUE!]

I have notes. Like a Hollywood executive, I have a few little comments that are meant to be helpful but will ultimately ruin everything. Ha, just kidding, I no power to ruin anything except maybe dinner.

First things first, I haven't seen most of these movies. I have like negative money in my bank account. Not really, but practically.

(Louis CK: You ever have negative money? That’s depressing, isn’t it? You look in your bank account and it says ‘negative $10,’ that’s how much I have now. Negative $10. That means I don’t even have no money now. I wish I did! I wish I didn’t have anything, I wish I just had nothing, but I have less than that! I don’t have none. I have not $10. {laughs} If it’s free, I can’t fucking afford it!)

So I can't afford to see these movies no matter how much I wish I could. If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. Oh, Shakespeare, so wise. So prolific. So off the topic. Where was I? Oh right, yeah, I can't afford to go to the movies. I have to wait for them to come to cable & then be motivated to watch them. I just saw "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" & that was a nominee from last year! I've found that movies are requiring a lot more effort on my part to get excited to see it whereas TV shows (good ones, nothing involving Kardashians or random people touching spiders in the dark) I can't watch 'em fast enough! I've said it before & I'll say it again, while the prestige level isn't there yet, TV is the place to go for quality, in-depth storytelling. I wish more books became TV shows like Game of Thrones. Can you imagine if they tried to stuff those epic length books (A Song of Ice & Fire - which I can't recommend enough) in a two hour movie? <shudder> Look what they are doing with The Hobbit for Christ's sake, it's a trilogy now isn't it? & that book is not long. I love the "Lord of the Rings" movies (more than the book, it was just so WORDY & I love words! but yeesh) but this seems like it's more about making money than telling the books story. But I want to have faith in Peter Jackson & I am very excited to see Legolas again. Swoon.

Anyway. While I haven't seen many of these movies, I have read a lot about them in Entertainment Weekly or on various entertainment websites. So I feel I'm as qualified as anyone to give my opinion.

The list below is from EW.com. My thoughts will be in italics next to the nominee. If there's nothing there, I have no opinion. Or I approve. Or I got tired of writing this blog. ;-)

Best Picture I kind of hate that they expanded this category to ten nominees from five. Five is plenty. I find it hard to believe that some of these noms couldn't have been celebrated in other categories. Like they have always done since this award show began! Also, if there are 10 noms here, why not 10 Best Director noms? I really feel like these two should go hand in hand. OH! And I thought the whole reason for the expansion was to deal with "The Dark Knight" snub, so where's "The Dark Knight Rises" nom? I thought it was a worthy successor to TDK - not its equal but still award worthy. BAH!
Amour Supposed to be amazing but uber depressing. I'll never see this.
Argo Haven't seen it, can't wait to see it, heard it's amazing & deserves to be here.
Beasts of the Southern Wild See above re: Amour.
Django Unchained I feel like this is a knee jerk nom from the Academy because it's QT's follow-up to "Inglourious Basterds" which was amazing & earned a nod for Best Pic.
Les Miserables Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh. I have no personal desire to see this at all. I have heard WILDLY inconsistent reviews of this movie. People are overwhelmed, underwhelmed & some are just plain whelmed. I guess more voters where overwhelmed than the reviewers & people who saw the movie but sadly have no say with the Academy
Life of Pi I heard this is visually stunning but there is a serious emotional disconnect.
Lincoln Haven't seen it, can't wait to see it, heard it's amazing & deserves to be here.
Silver Linings Playbook Haven't seen it, can't wait to see it, heard it's amazing & deserves to be here.
Zero Dark Thirty Haven't seen it, can't wait to see it, heard it's amazing & deserves to be here.

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook Super excited he's here, I've heard nothing but raves for his performance.
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln I think it's practically impossible for him to act in a movie & not be nominated. He does nothing for me, but I can't deny that he is universally recognized as one of the best actors working today.
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables Meh.
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master I did read he's good in this role, but he just said last week or so that this means nothing to him so why bother celebrating him? Eh. He's another one that does nothing for me. I wish his brother River was still alive. Him, I loved.
Denzel Washington, Flight I have read in many places that he is electric in this role & that the movie is good but not great. Seems that happens a lot for him. He elevates the material.

Best Actress No surprises here. Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild Really happy they nominated her even though she's so young. She was only 6 when she filmed this role. I haven't read a bad thing about her performance anywhere.
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Best Supporting Actor No real surprises here.
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress Again, no real surprises here.
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director I feel my rant above about the Best Picture situation says all I have to say about this category.
Michael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Animated Feature I'm just surprised there were five animated movies the Academy deemed worthy. Weren't there only like three films in this category last year?
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits Never heard of it.
Wreck-It Ralph

Where have the female superheroes gone?

Buffy is now relegated to comic form. David E. Kelly's Wonder Woman pilot didn't get picked up & was being picked apart by TV journos & bloggers while it was being made. Joss Whedon, who has proven he can write the female voice & do it well, tried to make a WW film for years before finally giving up & moving on to brighter pastures like "The Avengers" - a movie chock full of superheroes, only one of which is female (I think), Black Widow played by Scarlet Johansson & last seen in "Iron Man 2" doing little more than look sultry & have great hair. She doesn't seem to have an super powers either, other than being a highly skilled martial artists with a seemingly unlimited supply of gadgets (like a female Batman) but then this is the post-modern world of superheroes in which we live & maybe we don't want our heroes to be super anymore.

On TV, there are plenty of strong female characters (which is GREAT!), but other than the new ABC Family show about the girl with the catlike powers, Something Chloe King, there aren't any superheroes. There are women who can kick butt, no doubt; off the top of my head, there's Nikita & Alex from Nikita, Olivia on Fringe, Sarah on Chuck to name but a few. There are vampires all over the place in movies & TV, even lame sparkly ones but few of them could be called heroes & even fewer are female.

Perhaps the problem lies with the source, i.e. comic books? Aside from Wonder Woman most female superheroes tend to be merely the female counterparts to an established male superhero, like Batgirl, Supergirl & in their very names they are made inferior to the males by virtue of being mere "girls". There's no Batboy that I'm aware of, let's not bring Robin into this argument.

This is why we need Wonder Woman now more than ever. Buffy is over TV wise, I don't even want to think about the Joss-less movie they are attempting to put together right now. I'm not saying it's going to suck, but... yes, that is what I'm saying.

If we can't have Wonder Woman for whatever reason, we need another creative force out there to make up a new female superhero & bring her to the masses. Come on, Hollywood!

Princess of Power

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Whatever, I post erratically. Get over it. My reactions to Oscar [TM, (c) - PLEASE DON'T SUE!]

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

I Need a Hero

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

You Haven't Seen What?