Django Unchained

Django Unchained is one of the AFI’s 10 best movies for 2012 and was nominated for Best Picture.

I’m don’t think it’s one of the 10 best movies from last year or that it was a “BEST PICTURE” movie but I did enjoy it.

It’s basically your typical Quentin Tarantino movie—lots of swearing, lots of blood, lots of violence and lots of clever dialogue.

As you probably know, many of his movies are his take on a particular genre, and this is the Quentin Tarantino version of a western.  Django is a slave who becomes a free man and bounty hunter thanks to an encounter with a bounty hunter who’s after three men that Django can identify.  Django could use the money (and, obviously, the freedom) because he’s trying to find and save his wife, who was sold to one of the world’s worst people.

This is a fun movie (if you have a strong stomach—it’s very violent) but I don’t think it’s one of the best ones from last year.

Election

Election won Best Picture at the Independent Spirit Awards.

I’ve seen it before, but not in years.  I remembered bits and pieces—enough to know going in that it was a very dark comedy but not enough to remember just how dark and how funny it is.

It’s probably also the last time Reese Witherspoon would star in a movie with Matthew Broderick and not be the one to get top billing ;)

Reese stars as high school student Tracy Flick, the most ambitious girl ever.  She knows it’s her destiny to be student body president and woe to anyone who gets in her way—including the jock who opposes her and the history teacher who plots her downfall as subtly as he can (that’s Matthew Broderick).

This is very fun but very dark.  And it introduced me to the novels of Tom Perrotta, so I will owe it a debt of gratitude forever.

Super Bowl Plans

So I’m trying to figure out what to do during the Super Bowl tomorrow.  I leave work at 4 and then have no real plans.  All I know for sure is that I’m not watching football (but I hope the Ravens win—and I think they will; we beat the 49ers pretty easily last time).

There are basically two options.

I’m either going to read (Nobody But Us is so great; I hope to have a review up tomorrow) or work on the AFI project.  (This year, I want to focus on the best of TV releases, the musical list, the 10 best of 10 genres list, and the best of movies lists since 2001, as well as watch the Best Picture nominees (STILL holding steady at seven of the nine) and half of the Independent Spirit winners.)

I feel like I’m so behind on my reading that I really should be doing that and not anything else.  But at the same time, it’s been such a struggle lately to read that I feel like if I force myself, the slump will be worse.

So near as I can tell, my movie choices:  High Noon (one of the best westerns), Caddyshack (one of the best sports movies), Rear Window (one of the best mysteries), Big (one of the best fantasies), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (one of the best science fiction), Bonnie and Clyde (one of the best gangster movies), A Few Good Men (one of the best courtroom dramas), Gone With the Wind (one of the best epics), Moulin Rouge (one of the best musicals), The Man Who Wasn’t There (one of the best from 2001), Conspiracy (TV movie from 2001), Chicago (one of the best from 2002), Door to Door (TV movie from 2002), Mystic River (one of the best from 2003), Angels in America (TV movie from 2003), Collateral (one of the best from 2004), The Shield (one of the best TV shows from 2004), The Squid and the Whale (one of the best movies from 2005), Rescue Me (one of the best TV shows from 2005), Inside Man (one of the best movies from 2006), Elizabeth I (TV movie from 2006), Knocked Up (one of the best movies from 2007), Pushing Daisies (one of the best TV shows from 2007), The Wrestler (one of the best movies from 2008), Recount (TV movie from 2008), A Single Man (one of the best movies from 2009), True Blood (one of the best TV shows from 2009), Temple Grandin (one of the best TV movies from 2010), The Dark Knight Rises (one of the best movies from 2012) and Fargo (Independent Spirit winner).  You can even mix and match (to an extent; if you pick Gone With the Wind, that’s it).

Either that or read. :)

So leave me a comment with what I should do!  (Note: THOSE ARE YOUR CHOICES.  Don’t say “Watch the Super Bowl.”  It won’t be funny.) :)

Grease

Grease is one of the AFI’s 25 best musicals and one of the 100 Years, 100 Passions selections.

Everyone’s seen this, right?

I haven’t seen this that many times (maybe five? counting this time) but I still know all the songs.  I think everyone does—but especially Summer Nights and You’re the One That I Want and We Go Together.  It’s pretty mandatory.

I also haven’t seen this in years but between this and Carrie, it’s funny to see young John Travolta.  He really was adorable and I think it’s easy to forget that with the current version.

Anyway.  This is kind of goofy but really really fun. (Although the T-Birds are still a tougher gang than either of the ones from West Side Story.  So there’s that.)  And also, I still kind of want to be a Pink Lady.

Ugly Betty

Ugly Betty is one of the AFI’s top ten shows for 2007.

Episode watched: pilot

Seen show before? yes

Would I keep watching? possibly

Comcast has its own OnDemand area and one of the things it has is complete series of several shows, one of which is Ugly Betty.  Since I do have unread books piling up and a commitment to start Downton Abbey (and Homeland and Game of Thrones and Dexter and a ton of AFI movies left to watch, I’m not sure I will watch four seasons’ worth of Ugly Betty by the end of February 2014, but should I hit the lottery, I will give it my best effort.

I watched the pilot when it first aired, but I don’t think I watched any more episodes (maybe the next one but certainly not the third or anything past it).  It’s a cute show but it seemed very similar to The Devil Wears Prada and I didn’t think the show would be very sustainable.  (But it got three more seasons than Firefly, so clearly I don’t know anything about anything.)

Rewatching the pilot, though, I saw a lot of differences.  Daniel was occasionally kind to Betty, for example.  And I think I may have remembered hearing that they hooked up in later years or almost did or something. So it’s definitely a cute show and I wish I had infinite time and money so I could just consume all the pop culture.

Oscar Nominations (!!!!!)

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning and I continued my usual tradition of sleeping through them. Fortunately, my mom was watching and between her notes and a later visit to the internet for further detail, I am ready for the real award season to commence. (We won’t count last night’s People’s Choice Awards, even though I ended up watching them as usual and hating myself for it, also as usual.)

BEST PICTURE: There were nine picks this year (Lincoln, Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty) and I’ve currently seen seven of them. I’m so happy that Amour was nominated (more on that at the bottom of this post) because I think it’s the best movie I’ve seen in a long time.

MY THOUGHTS: I think Lincoln will win pretty much everything it’s up for this year. In a perfect world, it would be Amour (the best movie of the ones I’ve seen; I still need to see Beasts of the Southern Wild and Django Unchained) but this is far from a perfect world. Of the seven I HAVE seen, though, all are excellent movies and this is the first year where there isn’t a single movie where I’m like, “THAT got nominated for Best Picture?” I’m surprised they didn’t go to ten and throw in a popular choice (Skyfall, for example, or The Dark Knight Rises, but I’m okay with that.)

BEST DIRECTOR: Michael Haneke (Amour), Ang Lee (Life of Pi), David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook), Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild).

MY THOUGHTS: I’m pretty sure Spielberg will win for Lincoln. But I think it’s interesting that Tom Hooper didn’t get a nod for Les Miserables. It’s almost conventional wisdom that, since the Academy has gone over five nominations, the Best Director picks show you what the five “real” Best Picture contenders are and they aren’t the five I would have chosen, necessarily.

BEST ACTOR: Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook), Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln), Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables), Joaquin Phoenix (The Master), Denzel Washington (Flight).

MY THOUGHTS: If Lincoln only wins one award, it’ll be this one. Daniel Day-Lewis absolutely embodied Lincoln to an almost creepy degree and I can’t believe he won’t be rewarded for that here. He’s also only won Best Actor twice I think and, like Meryl Streep last year, it’s time for #3.

BEST ACTRESS: Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty), Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook), Emmanuelle Riva (Amour), Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Naomi Watts (The Impossible). This is noteworthy because it’s got both the oldest nominee ever (Riva) and the youngest (Wallis).

MY THOUGHTS: This is the one category I’m not sure of. I keep thinking Jessica Chastain but I’ve heard excellent things about Quvenzhane Wallis and Naomi Watts (I plan to watch both movies very, very soon) and I think Emmanuelle Riva gave the best acting performance I have ever seen, ever, and I want her to win but I don’t think she will. And Jennifer Lawrence was wonderful in The Silver Linings Playbook and she’s very “in” right now. So honestly, field wide open.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Alan Arkin (Argo), Robert DeNiro (Silver Linings Playbook), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master), Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained).

MY THOUGHTS: I’m leaning toward Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln but an Alan Arkin win wouldn’t surprise me. Or, honestly, a Robert DeNiro one. He’s probably owed something by now. ;)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Amy Adams (The Master), Sally Field (Lincoln), Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables), Helen Hunt (The Sessions), Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook).

MY THOUGHTS: Anne Hathaway. I love Sally Field in general and for her work in Lincoln, but Anne Hathaway was just on another level entirely. I can’t believe she won’t win. I’m thinking Lincoln will take everything else, so I hope that Anne Hathaway gets this.

AMOUR: This movie is not for the faint of heart. It’s a bit over two hours long, almost relentlessly depressing and to top it off, in French. (I don’t mind foreign films but I know many people do.) It’s about an elderly couple in their eighties. They’re going along really well until she has a medical emergency. Surgery is supposed to be able to fix it but it doesn’t and leaves her wheelchair-bound instead. Things get worse from there. I was expecting it to get nominated for Best Foreign Film but I’m happy it’s been picked for Best Picture. And I’m so happy that Emmanuelle Riva got a nomination for Best Actress.

Book Blogger Breakdown

This completely falls under the heading of “first world problems,” but I’m starting to think I may have bitten off more than I can chew this year.

I’m hoping to (a) re-read all of Stephen King’s books (62 to go), (b) keep up with all my TV shows and add a few more, (c) work on the AFI/Oscar/Independent Spirit Awards project* and, oh, yeah, keep up with review books and the book new releases I want to read that I didn’t get for review.

My reviews are scheduled a little in advance, but not THAT far in advance.  Which means there’s a chance that sometime soon (as early as Sunday, but hopefully later than that), there will come a morning when there is no new KellyVision post.

And I get that this is pressure I’ve put on myself.  But I’m trying to just do my best and when there isn’t a new entry, that will be okay.

Ultimately, I’m trying to remember that this is my hobby.  I take it seriously, but ultimately, if I miss a day, the world won’t end.  If I don’t read over 300 books this year, the world won’t end.

So here’s where I am now: after Blockade Billy, I’m going to focus on my review books for a bit.  And I’m going to give myself permission to not have a post up every day.

* = this year, I wanted to watch all the best picture nominees (which will be announced tomorrow), watch all 10 of the AFI’s best of 2012 list (7 done), watch half of the movies on the AFI best of lists from 2001 until 2009, watch half of the AFI’s best musicals list (I’ve seen six of 13 needed to do half), watch half of the movies on the AFI’s 10 best of 10 genres list, watch half of the Independent Spirit Award winners (I’ve seen seven of the 14 needed to do that), and watch the rest of the AFI best of TV picks from 2001 until 2010.  So that’s not a small amount of movies and TV, although there is some overlap.

Life of Pi

Life of Pi is one of the AFI’s 10 best movies for 2012.  It is probably going to get nominated for Best Picture, too.

It’s based on a ridiculously popular novel, but I haven’t read it yet.  All I knew going in was that the bulk of the plot was a teenage-ish boy on a lifeboat with a tiger.  And honestly, I thought it seemed like something I would hate.

Fortunately, the AFI proved—again—that I need to trust it more than I do.  So far, this is the second movie this year alone that I saw and loved and the second movie this year alone that I would’ve avoided like the proverbial plague if it weren’t on the AFI list.

Thank you, AFI.

I do think that this year’s Academy Awards (and the rest of the award shows) will be pretty well dominated by Lincoln, and it does make me sad that this movie is probably not going to win a slew of awards.  I hope if nothing else, it gets Best Cinematography, because this is a gorgeous movie.

All that’s left now is for me to see Beasts of the Southern Wild and Django Unchained and rewatch and blog The Dark Knight Rises and I will have seen all of the best movies of the year (or so says the AFI).

Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty is one of the AFI’s 10 best movies for 2012.

It’s the account of the hunt for and ultimate killing of Osama bin Laden.  It’s directed by Kathryn Bigelow (who won Best Director for The Hurt Locker) and stars Jessica Chastain (who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Help).  I mention that to share its Oscar pedigree. :)

This is a very good movie and is very suspenseful—interesting, really, given that we all know what happened to bin Laden.

The most fascinating aspect of this movie for me is just how interesting it is, given that it’s a lot of talking and very little action (up until the last half-hour when bin Laden  is ultimately found and killed).  So be aware if you see it that it’s very talky.

But oh, it’s also very, very good.  (Although you should also be aware that there’s a lot of torture, especially in the first half-hour or so.  They say that isn’t accurate, but…well.  I’m a little skeptical.)

Now that I’ve blogged six of the AFI nominations (and seen seven, counting The Dark Knight Rises), I think my favorite so far is Les Miserables and the best is either this, Les Mis or Lincoln…depending on what you’re in the mood for.  So far, though, everything I’ve seen has been incredible and I’m excited for the Oscar nominations in just a few days. (Early January.)

Les Miserables

Les Miserables is one of the AFI’s 10 best movies of 2012.

I am a total Broadway geek and, like most people who saw plays in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I love Les Miserables.  Like, LOVE.  As in a love that is greater than love.

And so when I found out that they were making a movie, I spent a lot of time talking about the casting choices and potential casting choices.  I approved of Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, was somewhat okay with Russell Crowe as Javert and was adamantly opposed to the rumored casting of Taylor Swift as Eponine.  (Interesting story: the person they DID cast as Eponine was a member of one of the Les Mis touring companies, so her voice is definitely Broadway-quality.)

And I will admit that I was nervous about Anne Hathaway as Fantine and I will now publicly apologize because she was fantastic and heartbreaking and perfect in the role.  I hope that she gets Best Supporting Actress.

I’m pretty sure Lincoln will win Best Picture and that makes me sad because so far, Les Miserables is by far my favorite of what I’ve seen.  Don’t get me wrong, I like Lincoln; it’s a great movie.  But Les Miserables is a whole other thing.