Sundance Day 2

Sundance day 2
As I am writing this I am standing online for the last movie of the day The Catechism Cataclysm at midnight. So far this day was pretty good. Woke up early to catch a 9:15 movie. We saw The Details with Tobey Maguire and Elizabeth Banks. It is about a guy who makes a bunch of bad decisions that leads to adultery and eventually murder. This is a dark comedy and is the funniest movies I have ever seen at Sundance. Then afterwards it was cool to see Tobey Maguire on stage for the Q&A.

Next up after some lunch was Rebirth. This is a documentary about 5 people coping with the aftermath of 9/11. Each person tells their story of dealing with loss and healing. The director interviewed each person every year for 8 years following 9/11. We get to see all their stages of grief and how they put their life together. The most compelling story was that of one of the survivors and her struggle to recover from her injuries.
This was a great movie and it's going to tough to find a movie to top it as best of the fest. The movie had everyone tearing up especially when the survivor came up for the Q&A.

After such an emotional movie we decided to go eat some dinner the head over to the new frontier exhibit. That is where the have experimental film exhibitions. We saw the much talked about James Franco exhibit Threes Company: The Drama which I found very stupid and unnecessary. But one of the better exhibits was The Jonny Cash Project which took Internet user submitted drawings of each scene and put them into the video.

After that we went up to the iconic Egyptian theatre for Letters From the Big Man. A movie about this women's encounter with big foot. It was the most boring movie. A whole lot the women sitting alone in the wilderness. While the scenery was good the story had no point. I was thinking it was the worst movie about big foot I have ever seen then I realized the only other big foot movie I can't think of is Harry and the Hendersons which was funny and much better then this movie. We really need a good big foot movie.
That is it for now time for the last movie of the day then 4 hours sleep then it is back up at 6:30 am for a couple of movies then some skiing.

Sundance Day 1

Well the day started off a little rough. Got up at 3:30am then had a rough flight from Milwaukee to Houston and almost missed our connection to Salt Lake City.  We had to run from one terminal to the other and when we got to the gate they had the door closed but luckily enough the plane was still there and we were able to board. So, finally made it to Salt Lake City and luggage arrived with no problems. Then  we got on the shuttle to take us to Park City and after driving around the airport an extra time we were on our way.  One of the things I love about Sundance is you never know who you are going to run into.  On the shuttle was an assistant director for Take Shelter which was the first movie on our list to see today. Also, on the shuttle was the stand in for Tobey Maguire in The Details which is on the list of movies to see tomorrow.  

Take Shelter is a movie about a guy who has dreams about a coming storm and is not sure if it is prophetic or he is going crazy.  The vistions are so intense that he decided to build a storm shelter in his backyard.  The movie was a great start to Sundance. Great performance from Michael Shannon and the rest of the cast.  It is a great story about a man struggling with his sanity.  The movie drags a little in the middle and seems to go on a little too long, but it has a good ending. 

Sundance 2011

Its my first day here in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival and thought I would give you a preview of movies I am going to see.

Take Shelter



The Details The Detals at Sundance
 
Rebirth Rebirth at Sundance

Letters from the Big Man Letters from the Big Man at Sundance

The Catechism Cataclysm -The Catechism Cataclysm at Sundance

Sound of My Voice- Sound of My Voice at Sundance

Hobo With a Shotgun



Gun Hill Road



Vampire-Vampire at Sundance

Mary Marcy May Marlene



Circumstance

2011 Oscar Nomination Predictions

Well the Oscar nominations are coming up in a few days and thought I would share my predictions for what will be nominated. Not real original ideas since most of these nominations have been predicted before. But here they are.
Predictions for Oscar Nominations


Best Picture
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids are All Right
The Kings Speech
The Social Network
The Town
Toy Story 3
True Grit

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky
Danny Boyle
David Fincher
Tom Hooper
Christopher Nolan

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges
Robert Duvall
Jesse Eisenberg
Colin Firth
James Franco

Best Actress
Annette Bening
Nicole Kidman
Jennifer Lawrence
Natalie Portman
Michelle Williams

Best Original Screenplay
Another Year
Black Swan
Inception
The Kids are All Right
The Kings Speech

Best Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours
The Social Network
The Town
True Grit
Winters Bone

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale
Geoffrey Rush
Mark Ruffalo
Andrew Garfield
Jeremy Renner

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams
Helena Bonham Carter
Mila Kunis
Melissa Leo
Hailee Steinfeld

Best Animated Feature
How to Train Your Dragon
Tangled
Toy Story 3

Best Documentary Feature
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waiting for “Superman”
Wasteland

My Fair Lady

This is the second musical of 4 to win best picture in the 60's and the first of 2 musicals in a row to win best picture.  The mid 60's were kind of  the peak of musicals in my opinion. Growing up my sister loved this movie. I have not seen it in a long time but was still excited to see it. Some of the songs aren't great but I love the story and the acting. 

The movie is about a phonetics professor Henry Higgins(Rex Harrison) who accepts a bet to reform a simple cockney Londoner Eliza Doolittle(Audrey Hepburn) into a lady who could pass as royalty  This meeting of two worlds gets off to a rocky start.  Higgins is an egomaniac and treats everyone else as dirt.  Eliza is a girl that will not stand to be treated like that and is always standing up for herself and constantly butting heads with Higgins. Her whole reason for being there is to improve her place in society so she doesn't have to sell flowers in the street anymore.  After some work she starts to  make progress and he eventually brings her to a big ball where she is mistaken for royalty.  After winning his bet Higgins begins to gloat and feeling very good about himself but does not give any credit to Eliza. When Eliza finally leaves after not feeling very appreciated for the work she put in Higgins realizes that he kind of liked having her around and wants her to come back and live there. 

I can see why my sister and any young girls would like this movie. It is that age old story about an ugly ducking turning into a princess.  Audrey Hepburn is amazing. Her transformation in the movie is amazing and when she finally steps into the ballroom she is stunning. I love the constant back and forth between her and Rex Harrison.  The unfortunate thing about this movie is that all of Hepburn's singing was dubbed, which is sad because she is a good singer. And probably because her voice was dubbed she got denied a nomination for Best Actress which is a shame because it is such a great performance. The movie did win 8 awards in total including Best Director for George Cukor and Best Actor for Rex Harrison

The big competition for My Fair Lady that year was another of my favorite musicals Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins was nominated for 13 awards and won 5 including Best Actress for Julie Andrews and Best Song for  "Chim Chim Cher-ee" which is my favorite songs in that movie.  It is interesting that Julie Andrews won for Mary Poppins because she originated the role of Eliza Doolittle on Broadway and many people thought she should have reprised the role in the movie seeing as Rex Harrison reprised the role of Higgins for the film. The other musical that came out that year that got 2 nominations was A Hard Day's Night. And while it was nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Score none of The Beatles songs were nominated for Best Song.

The movie that is currently considered the best of 1964 is Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb directed by Stanley Kubrick. This movie was probably a little bit too edgy for the Academy at that time and it is truly amazing that it got 4 nominations including Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director. Oddly enough Peter Sellers was not nominated for Best Actor even though he played 3 characters in the movie. Sellers also had two other movies that came out that year that he could have been nominated for. A Shot in the Dark and The World of Henry Orient.
On AFI 100 Greatest Movies My Fair Lady was number 91 in 1997 and did not make the list in 2007
Dr. Strangelove was number 26 and 30 in 2007.

Best Movies that take place in Boston

With three movies that take place in or around Boston The Fighter, The Town, and The Social Network all getting high praises this year and each with a chance for an Oscar Nomination or two I thought it would be fun to give my list of the top 5 movies that take place around Boston. Having gone to school and lived there for 5 years I am kind of partial to movies from there.

1. Good Will Hunting
2. The Departed
3. Mystic River
4. Fever Pitch
5. The Social Network

Other movies that didn't make my list.
Gone Baby Gone, Southie, Blown Away, Legally Blonde.
What are your favorite movies that take place in Boston

Tom Jones

Tom Jones the movie not the singer.
This movie in my opinion is the worst movie to win best picture. It took me 3 tries to watch the whole thing and even though I tried watching it all the way through in one sitting I just could not do it. I kept falling asleep or just stopped paying attention. I guess it is supposed to be a comedy but I did not find it funny at all. If anyone knows why this is still considered a good movie please let me know.

The movie is about Tom Jones(Albert Finney) an illegitimate baby adopted by a rich squire in 18th century England . The baby grows up to be irreverent and very found of women and drink. He has sex with one of his adopted father’s servants and is eventually kicked out of the house where he then travels to London . Along the way he gets into even more trouble has sex with more women (one who turns out might be his mother!) and eventually makes it to London where he hooks up with a rich older women. All this time he keeps professing his love for his neighbor’s daughter Sophie. Sophie runs away from her house when she is set in an arranged marriage to Tom’s cousin. She eventually makes it London only to find Tom living the high life with his new mistress. Eventually after many antics and a few crazy revelations they do end up together.

I read somewhere that this is supposed to be a romantic comedy. I found it neither romantic nor a comedy. It was just a boring really crazy movie. I do not understand why Sophie likes Tom so much even though he is always off sleeping with other women, and in the end it doesn’t seem to matter. She just accepts him back. The other problem with this movie is the crazy camera work. It just jarring and seems out of place. I can’t even say the acting is good because it is hard to believe that this movie got 5 nominations for acting including 3 for best supporting actress. Luckily it did not win any(the only movie to have 5 nomination for acting and not win any). All I kept thinking is how bad Albert Finney was and how good he was in Erin Brockovich another role he was nominated for. I read one of the actors (Hugh Griffith) was drunk through the whole movie which really shows how little they cared for the movie and I think it shows.

I think 1963 was another year where any movie that was released the year before could have won best picture. For example if To Kill a Mockingbird was released in ’63 instead of ’62 there was no way it was going to lose. What should have won in ’63? In my opinion The Birds one of the best Hitchcock movies which wasn’t even nominated. Other movies The Great Escape, The Pink Panther, and while I never saw it I heard Lilies of the Field was a great movie and did win Sidney Poitier’s only Academy Award. The other movie that was nominated and had a lot of press that year was the big budget epic Cleopatra. Which almost put 20th Century Fox into bankruptcy.
It also marks the second time in the 60's that a movie about sexual promiscuity won best picture. Showing again how in the 60's the film industry was pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable to show in theatres. With lots of sex (none on screen but very much implied) and some partial nudity this is by far the most sexually explicit movie to win best picture up to that time.