The Nominations: Oscar Dash 2013

The Academy Award nominees were announced today and it is time for another Oscar Dash! Like last year, my goal is to watch as many nominated films as possible before the ceremony- usually, I stick with Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, and Best Foreign Film categories. This year there are some serious contenders. It was a great year for film!

Click here to see the lists. I'll be reviewing as I see them. It is obviously hard for me to predict anything yet, but based on reviews it looks like Lincoln and Life of Pi will be hard to beat.

 

Amour

Argo

Beasts Of The Southern Wild

Django Unchained

Les Miserables

Lincoln

Life Of Pi

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty


The countdown begins!

The Hustler

The Hustler (Robert Rossen, 1961)

Click here for the basics

Rating: Q=6, P=6 / Average OJ

Scale 1=3, Scale 2=3, Scale 3=3, Scale 4=3

 

Pool/Billiards, Pride and Character, Complex Relationships

 

Men proving their worth to other men is always a fascinating subject for me. Throw in talent and drive, unstable romance, and the criminal underworld and you get a marvelous story. The Hustler is fun to watch, imagine, and think about. Arguably one of Paul Newman's best roles, Fast Eddie is troubled and talented, full of himself and lacking self worth, strong and weak. These flawed but larger than life characters make the film timeless.

--Don't understand the ratings? Click here

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I'm excited about the upcoming movie marathons in store- stay tuned for many 2012 film posts and the annual OSCAR dash. I am anticipating a wealth of great drama and comedy for this new year, as well. Hopefully this winter I will have time to do a few more "special" posts and themed lists.

Posts coming soon: The Hustler, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Sweet Land, and Ajami

Le Havre

Le Havre (Aki Kaurismaki, 2011)

Click here for the basics

Rating: Q=5, P=4 / Average OJ

Scale 1=3, Scale 2=2, Scale 3=2, Scale 4=2

France, Immigration, Subtle, Slow-Paced, Comic, Quirky
 

I'm not sure what I think of this film. I was intrigued by the artistic qualities and stillness of the story but was less interested in the narrative and characters than I'd hoped to be. Marcel, an aging shoe-shiner, decides to help a young escaped refugee. He does so out of the kindness of his heart and/or perhaps because his wife is ill and he needs distraction. At least, I suppose. We don't really know Marcel. The sleepy port town seems to have loyal and endearing characters -like the ridiculous Little Bob and his wife Mimie- but we don't really get a chance to know them. It is all quite odd but in a good way.

--Don't understand the ratings? Click here