The Weight Of It
Good God, has it been this long? I feel badly that I've been away as long as I have, friends. Work is hardly demanding, but it takes my time up to the point that what little free time I have is all the more precious. What little there is to recap:
Saw Rabbit Hole last weekend as part of my efforts to watch all films with nominations in the major categories before this coming Sunday. Harsh story of a couple coping with the loss of a child. As soul-crushing as parts of this film were, the performances from Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart were both deserving of Oscar nods at the very least.
And yesterday I went out and saw Biutiful, the new one from Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu. This is a complex film- par for the course for the man, but he essentially crafts a story around a single character that's wrapped up in a lot of things around him, whereas his previous flicks had several main characters all with their own stories being told simultaneously. If there was ever a man to have a story as big as this all to himself, you couldn't ask for a better choice than Javier Bardem. Equally tragic and life-affirming at turns, this one took the Best Actor nod by the throat.
LESS THAN STEALTHY EDIT: I also saw the Oscar-nominated animated shorts at work on Friday. Besides Pixar's 'Day & Night', there was a British one based on a children's story called 'The Gruffalo', 'Let's Pollute!', a lovely Australian piece called 'The Lost Thing', and an experimental piece entitled 'Madagascar'. My boss asked me which piece I'd root for, pretending I didn't work at Pixar, and I said I'd love to see The Gruffalo win- it's a charming tale of a mouse using his silver tongue to get away from the many dangers of the forest, all voiced by folks that would be familiar to any Brit-lover.
This weekend brings my second Beer Bash with my bro and Zander followed by numerous shenanigans culminating in the Oscars Sunday. FIXIN' TO BE EPIC.
Saw Rabbit Hole last weekend as part of my efforts to watch all films with nominations in the major categories before this coming Sunday. Harsh story of a couple coping with the loss of a child. As soul-crushing as parts of this film were, the performances from Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart were both deserving of Oscar nods at the very least.
And yesterday I went out and saw Biutiful, the new one from Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu. This is a complex film- par for the course for the man, but he essentially crafts a story around a single character that's wrapped up in a lot of things around him, whereas his previous flicks had several main characters all with their own stories being told simultaneously. If there was ever a man to have a story as big as this all to himself, you couldn't ask for a better choice than Javier Bardem. Equally tragic and life-affirming at turns, this one took the Best Actor nod by the throat.
LESS THAN STEALTHY EDIT: I also saw the Oscar-nominated animated shorts at work on Friday. Besides Pixar's 'Day & Night', there was a British one based on a children's story called 'The Gruffalo', 'Let's Pollute!', a lovely Australian piece called 'The Lost Thing', and an experimental piece entitled 'Madagascar'. My boss asked me which piece I'd root for, pretending I didn't work at Pixar, and I said I'd love to see The Gruffalo win- it's a charming tale of a mouse using his silver tongue to get away from the many dangers of the forest, all voiced by folks that would be familiar to any Brit-lover.
This weekend brings my second Beer Bash with my bro and Zander followed by numerous shenanigans culminating in the Oscars Sunday. FIXIN' TO BE EPIC.