JakeLikesMovies posted a BLOG item
11 days ago
Warning: Sometimes you've just got to ramble and the following probably belongs in the category of tl;dr, but if you're bored feel free. You've been warned.
Side note: I don't personally put a lot of stock into awards but it is always nice to see deserving films get some validation even if some (or many) of the ones you love may get snubbed.
Well living in a podunk town means limited release flicks rarely find their way to the screens of our only theater. It totally sucks but what can you do? I’m not cut out for life in “the big city” so I just patiently wait and suffer … but sometimes some unexpected cinematic salvation does make it out here though if it doesn’t get lost in the wheat and alfalfa fields along the way.
My local ten screen theater which happens to be the only one within about a two hour roundtrip drive finally came around and we now have several of the Oscar Best Pic noms that were originally limited releases that I could never check out before. Needless to say I have some serious catching up to do!
To kick things off I caught THE DESCENDANTS today and it was a powerful movie that deserves the awards recognition it's getting. Clooney and Co. nailed it capturing real emotion and it grabbed me in a way few movies do. I am a 24 year old man, raised on a ranch and when a lone tear went down George's cheek my eyes welled up. I didn’t cry, although I don't think there is anything wrong with that mind you, I have only done that to one film and I was eight or nine at the time (BENJI: THE HUNTED in case you were wondering) but this film strike a chord in me somewhere. I expect high things from the rest of the nominees.
Tomorrow I'm finally checking out either HUGO or THE ARTIST ... probably the latter as I have never experienced a silent film in an actual theater and ours nixed 3D so I won’t be able to experience the former the way Scorsese intended, I’ll see both soon enough regardless. To call me excited about the prospect of seeing a silent movie in theaters would be a gross understatement.
I love silent flicks, some of my earliest memories of watching movies were the silent greats like Chaplin and Keaton or the classics NOSFERATU and METROPOLIS. Hell, I even enjoy the hell out of Mel Brook's SILENT MOVIE. I was young and I can't explain why a kid that age would even give silent movies a second glance but I was mesmerized. Obviously that creates a bias as I am inclined to root for THE ARTIST to win Best Picture without even seeing it, THE ARTIST would only be the second silent film in the 84 years of the Academy to do so (in case you were wondering again WINGS won the very first Best Picture Oscar back in 1927 and has been the only silent film to do so, so far …) and that would be a pretty awesome to see something historic like that happen.
That inclination could change, however, because I predict by the end of the week I'll have seen all of this past years Academy Award Best Picture nominees and then I'll be able to make an informed decision. It will be the first time I have ever been able to do so before the little naked golden dudes are handed out and I have to tell you; that feels pretty good, man.
Mood:
Happy
that.is.badass.