The Oscars are this Sunday, and I have a feeling The Artist is going to do very well. It's nominated for 10 awards, and if I hadn't lost all my money on the Super Bowl, I'd be placing my bets.
I wish I could call up every single person who told me, "Sleep while you can!" and inform them that their advice was terrible. I wish I had used all that nap time to go to the movies, because I miss it a whole lot.
The animation is breathtaking. Not in that computer animated we-see-every-piece of hair-follicle-sway-in-the-wind, but more like a Matisse painting come to life.
This year Demián BichirĀ from Mexico received best actor Oscar nominations. While Bichir deserves to win, it is unlikely perhaps because Oscar voters are 94% Caucasian and Latinos are less than 2% of the Academy's voting members.
Well, who wouldn't want to believe that love could be so ennobling? That a person would make a sacrifice -- giving up the possibility of, oh, multiple sexual partners, let's say -- in service of a greater love? It's an appealing fantasy, and I'd like to say it's a fantasy shared equally by men and women.
I continued to kneel by Mr. Poitier's side and he continued to hold my hand. "Please finish telling me all about Matty May," he said softly, her name now coming from him as his had so often come from hers.
Heigl is good at talking the talk -- speaking out about the inherent sexism in the movie industry -- but she seems almost willfully against challenging the norms of gender in cinema that she criticizes.
If a week is a long time in politics then a week at a film festival is an eternity where you not only travel across time and space but into the minds of a female victim of war, a confused second generation British-Egyptian teenager and a reluctant revolutionary.
Unquestionably, there are a few memorable films in the running, but also a lot of filler -- some nominees that simply make you scratch your head in wonderment.
People I do business with every day, people who are allegedly my friends -- completely avoid me. I'm talking "see-me-and-make-a-hard-left-turn-into-the-cocktail-waitress" avoid. This fascinates me in a morbid kind of way, so I purposely begin to seek these people out.
Sure there are slam dunks like Rango taking home Best Animated Feature, and The Artist will probably win big in most major categories, but I suspect a bunch of upsets in the acting categories.
In 1985, German director Wim Wenders was prodded by his girlfriend to watch a performance of choreographer Pina Bausch's eerie Café Müller, not knowing that what he was about to witness would change his movies and his life.
The film speaks to some part of us that, while enjoying and utilizing all of the technology and fast-paced changes in our world, perhaps still appreciates and longs for something that feels simpler and more pure.
Our hope in making Undefeated was that the personal stories of three high school football players and their volunteer coach would at least start a conversation that may lead to answers to some of our most difficult problems.
I saw 50 of the 63 films entered in the Best Foreign Language Film category and I am happy to report that this was an exceptionally good year. If no single masterpiece stood out, there were a couple dozen good films that I would recommend for film fans of various tastes.
More than anything else, the Oscars are supposed to be a celebration of the movies. Right? So celebrate!
Kevin Sessums, 2012.22.02
Ellen DeGeneres, 2012.22.02
Melissa Fairbanks, 2012.21.02