Welcome to the latest Things I’m Obsessed With!
Movies:
It’s Oscar season and so I should be finishing up the Best Picture nominees I haven’t seen—still holding steady at Beasts of the Southern Wild and Django Unchained—but instead, I am so in love with 21 Jump Street (the movie with Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill). I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve watched this movie over the past few weeks. And more than that, I probably SHOULDN’T tell you.
Sometime soon, I’m going to do my second annual Oscar Redux post. According to Facebook, I should do 1998 (Titanic, As Good as it Gets, The Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, LA Confidential). It won’t be this week, as I hope to finish this year’s Oscar nominations, but soon. So if someone wanted to get me Titanic on Blu-Ray for my birthday, faster would be better. ;)
Books:
I’ve officially registered for BEA! As you know, it’s always the highlight of my year, and I’m so excited for my fourth year there. :) I have high hopes, as always, and they always seem to be exceeded. So we’ll see what this year has in store for me. I think my favorite BEA cohort Kathy and I have a good system down and I look forward to improving on it this year (and hopefully this is also the year of margaritas, because she’s also fun). #TeamAllTheBooks
TV:
Tomorrow is the last episode of 30 Rock. I’m not at all happy about that (how come The Office, which is the least consistent show EVER gets to limp on til May but 30 Rock—which has always been funny—gets a short final season? Uncool, NBC) but at least it’s an hour long. And I trust that they’ll do it right.
So what are you obsessed with this week?
I think 1998 was a spectacular year for movies. Of the nominees you listed, I’d immediately dump Good Will Hunting and As Good As It Gets. Oh, yeah: I’d lose The Full Monty as well. All three of them were good, but I’d sub The Apostle, Wag the Dog, and (especially) Ulee’s Gold, which was just a beautiful film. Titanic was a, well, titanic achievement in filmmaking, but for my money, L.A. Confidential wins hands-down. It has an awesome cast–Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey (!), James Cromwell, Danny DeVito, David Straithairn, and Kim Basinger (who won Supporting Actress)–and it’s one of the rare films that is better than the book. It showed the seedy underbelly of shiny 1950′s LA, and mixed real people into a fictional setting. Coolest minor point: at a party fundraiser, they introduce Chet Baker, the foremost trumpet-player of the 1950′s L.A. Cool Jazz scene (and my favorite trumpet-player ever). Some of the dialogue just crackles with delighted profanity, especially between Crowe’s character and…well, everyone he talks to. Titanic was bigger, but L.A. Confidential is one of the smartest films out there, and an absolute joy to watch.
I should note that 1997-8 was the last time I saw all the nominees in the theater. Best Actor that year was full of legends: Nicholson (who won), Dustin Hoffman (Wag the Dog), Peter Fonda (Ulee’s Gold), Robert Duvall (The Apostle), and Matt Damon. Name the one of those who had the least chance of winning. lol
If you haven’t seen “The Apostle,” you should do so. Robert Duvall wrote and directed it, in addition to giving an amazing performance as an over-the-top, very sincere preacher. Lord help me for saying this, but Farrah Fawcett was brilliant as his estranged wife.
Peter Fonda gives the exact opposite performance as Duvall–a beautiful, quiet, introspective turn as a bee-keeper who just wants to be left alone to take care of his troubled family. (Somehow, one night on Twitter, he talked about hosting a benefit with Pauley Perrette from NCIS, and said they discussed writing Fonda in for an episode. I tweeted him back that he should be an Admiral suspected of murder in his backyard…and that the backyard would be full of beehives. He tweeted me back that he did a spit-take when he read that. We bonded. Fonda & I are tight like that.
Sorry to hijack your blog with my ridiculously long comment, but L.A. Confidential was the best that year, imho. Not even close. I’d have voted for Confidential, but prayed for front-end points on Titanic.
YAY! “Beasts” made your list! I FINALLY got to see Django this past weekend and now, I can say, you’ve got to see it! LOVED!
I’m not sure when I will see them. I hope to see them both before the Oscars though. :)
Are you going to have an Oscar’s party? lol You totally SHOULD.
Yup. My third annual.