Category Archives: Movies

I watched the Oscars last night and so did a few of my friends. Some of them agreed to talk to me about it!! See below for insight from Jema, Kate Linnea Welsh, Cindy, Christina, Melissa Miller, Thomas Galvin and Melissa Leaman.

Are you happy with the Best Picture Winner?
Jema: I haven’t seen it. Happy for Ben though. That beard is dedication.
Kate: Yes! I loved Argo. A lot.
Christina: I was surprised, but satisfied. Argo was damn good.
Cindy: Haven’t seen any of the nominated movies yet, but based on everything I’ve heard, sure. lol
Christina: I only saw three of them, and if was just between those three, I’d have still picked Argo. (For the record, I only saw: Argo, Django Unchained, and Silver Linings Playbook)
Melissa M: So happy. I LOVED Argo. So much. It was my favorite movie of the year, with Silver Linings Playbook a pretty close second for entirely different reasons. I just thought Argo was masterfully put together and I will never get over Ben not being up for director. I hold grudges.
Thomas: Silver Linings Playbook was the only one of these that I managed to drag myself off the couch to see, but I really liked it. You know, aside from the whole “where the hell is Katniss’ bow and arrow” thing.
Melissa L: I was very happy with Argo. The only one of the nominees that I haven’t seen yet is Amour (it hasn’t been showing in town until this weekend) and I think Argo overall deserved it most. It was a stellar movie. And to speak to Thomas’ below point (an excellent one) I would consider Argo in the fun movie category simply because everyone I knew was on the edge of their seat, despite it being a historical film. The suspense and drama were there, where so many nominees lacked any real engagement with the audience.
Thomas: Here’s the thing, though. I think the fact that so many of us haven’t seen all of the nominated films, or almost any of them, is very telling. The Oscars is trying to be all edgy and cool and relevant, which is why they started wearing a backwards baseball cap and listening to 70s rock music in the gym, and also why they hired Seth MacFarlane to host. The problem is, it’s not really the format of the award shows that’s out of touch, it’s the awards themselves. Silver Linings Playbook was a great movie, but The Avengers couldn’t even get a nomination? Same thing with The Dark Knight a few years ago. The Oscars thinks they’re “above” fun movies, and that makes them irrelevant to a lot of people. Silver Linings was probably the movie out of the ones nominated, but … so what?
Thomas: Also, I’m happy Zero Dark Thirty didn’t win. We have enough rednecks in this country just itching for the chance to waterboard a brown person without Hollywood telling them that that’s how we caught Bin Laden.

How about Best Actress?
Jema: Love Jennifer. So happy for her.
Kate: I haven’t seen that one yet, but I like Jennifer Lawrence in general. I did think Jessica Chastain was great in Zero Dark Thirty, so I was rooting for her, but I’m not upset at the result.
Christina: Pretty sure Jennifer Lawrence can do no wrong. This was another huge surprise. I actually gasped when they called her name, and for a brief second, wondered if I was imagining it? Here’s the thing: Silver Linings Playbook was a GOOD movie. I really liked it, and I especially liked the topic it tackled. But I never would have guessed it would be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, you know, let alone all these acting awards. I’m not saying she didn’t deserve the award, because let’s face it, Jennifer Lawrence was excellent in it. Totally convincing. It was just a surprise to me all around. A pleasant surprise, because girl deserves ALL the awards.
Cindy: Again, I haven’t seen the movie, but I was rooting for her in a way that was very unfair to the rest of the women. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have switched over to watch the last hour of the show after “The Walking Dead” if I hadn’t wanted to see her win her first Oscar so much. If Chastain would have beaten her out I would have held an irrational grudge against her forever.
Melissa M: So. Freaking. Happy. Jennifer Lawrence is a national treasure. I don’t have a problem with KStew like so many do, but in every way KStew is awkwardly awkward, JLaw is adorably awkward. She just says what she is thinking and it’s amazing to watch her. Plus she is a flawless actress to boot, which I suppose is the point of this category.
Thomas: Jennifer Lawrence is basically my favorite person in the whole world. She’s like this beautiful tomboy fangirl adorkaclutz who somehow stumbled into being one of the most bankable actors in Hollywood. My only problem with her winning Best Actress was that she didn’t also take home an award for “Being Jennifer Lawrence.”
Thomas: Although if she had joined hands with Quvenzhané Wallis and threatened to eat poison berries unless they were both allowed to win, I wouldn’t have minded.
Melissa L: There was no one I wanted to win more than J-Law. She’s perfection and she more than earned it.

Was there one specific Oscar moment that you loved?
Jema: Jennifer Lawrence falling over was amazing and perfect for who she is.. she is just a normal girl. I adore her. i love her dorkiness and she is ‘awkward’ but relatable unlike KStew who needs to go away. Also, the 9 year old (its midnight here.. I can’t remember her name.. oops!) nominee flexing as she was called for the best actress category. Adorable.
Kate: The Sound of Music joke when they introduced Christopher Plummer! That completely made my night.
Christina: The Sound of Music joke was legit funny, and my first laugh-out-loud moment of the night (sad, eh?). I’d have to say the ONE moment I loved… Ben Affleck’s breathless, yet coherent acceptance speech for Best Picture. His face when they won was excellent. He was in total shock, still managed to say sweet things about his (awesome) wife, and had a meaningful message that people can actually take to heart, you know? Unlike Anne Hathaway’s “message,” which was just SO condescending. (I have a DEEP hatred for her… I just do). Also, I think next year there should be a category for Best Beard. Ben would win, hands down.
Cindy: Since I only watched the last hour, Jennifer winning & of course Affleck with that fantastically perfect speech.
Melissa M: Like everyone else, I thought the Sound of Music gag was perfect. But, because I’m mean, my favorite moment is probably how Catherine Zeta Jones did an awful lip sync and then Jennifer Hudson came out and made her look like a fool by blowing it away. Live.
Thomas: The fact that the Oscars introduced “Jaws me off” to the pop culture lexicon.
Melissa L: I’ll ditto laughing at the Sound of Music gag. But I’m not actually a big Jennifer Hudson fan and yet she was by far my favorite moment. The show’s focus on music at the movies (the theme for the year) had a lot of Oscar winners on stage, but Jennifer was the performance that showed she EARNED her award.
Thomas: You know what they need to do? Have an Oscars all-star team. The Best Screenwriter of the year gets to write a movie starring the Best Actor and Best Actress, scored by Best Whatever They Call The Guy Who Does the Music, directed by Best Director, etc etc, just to see what happens when you get the most talented people in the world working on a single project. My prediction: it would be a total train wreck.

Is there any specific Oscar race that you were hoping would go a different way?
Jema: I am really disappointed Hugh didn’t win. He deserved it.
Kate: Not a specific race, I guess, but I would have liked Zero Dark Thirty to get some recognition. Though I wouldn’t give it Best Picture over Argo. Really, I would have wanted one of those to get Directing, but neither were even nominated.
Christina: Well, if only Argo had been nominated in the Director category… But as it was on stage… DEF Best Supporting Actress (see my complaint above. Hathaway is just the worst.) I would have given it to Sally Field. I didn’t even see Lincoln, but she’s fabulous and I love her. At least Sally has humility, right? “It came true!” *ROLLS MY EYES UNTIL THEY FALL OUT OF MY HEAD* You’re the worst, Hathaway. The Worst. AND you’re from New Jersey. Salt in the wound.
Melissa M: Obviously, director. But given the choices that were available, I’m super happy with Ang Lee. He’s great. But as far as the nominations as they were – Daniel Day Lewis. I do not like him. At all. And I think what Hugh did with Jean Valjean was so much better than what DDL did with Lincoln. Sorry America. Vive La France! 24601! (Just kidding… USA USA USA. Better?)
Thomas: I didn’t really have a dog in most of these races. For me the Oscars are just another night to sit on my couch and make sarcastic comments on Twitter, and I can do that no matter who wins.
Melissa L: If we’re counting upset about nominations, I’m still annoyed that Ben wasn’t in the director race and that John Goodman didn’t get a best supporting nom for Argo (he was fantastic). But as to the actual winners? I wanted anyone but Daniel Day Lewis. And while Paperman was an excellent animated short, I was hoping “Fresh Guac” would pull an upset. If y’all haven’t watched the shorts yet, get on that.
Thomas: I don’t get all the Anne Hathaway hate, so I’m kind of glad she won just because it pissed so many people off.
Cindy: LOL! I don’t get it either, Thomas. I feel like I missed something important in pop culture because I don’t know. As far as her winning though, I could care less. Also, I’m glad I was watching TWD & missed her nipples. Now I only have to navigate the online photo galleries.
Melissa L: Most of the time I like Anne Hathaway. This particular awards season though, she’s felt a bit Taylor Swifty to me is all. With that “oh you really like me” thing over & over. There’s someone who did the same thing a couple years ago and i found it grating then too. As for the ongoing hate of Hathaway, I don’t get that.

There is some controversy about the Gone With the Wind Score being played as Quentin Tarantino collected the award for Best Original Screenplay for Django Unchained. Were you offended? If so, why? If not, why not?
Jema: Who cares? I mean.. Who REALLY CARES???
Kate: I thought it was weird – a bunch of the music choices were weird – but I wasn’t offended.
Cindy: I don’t understand why panties were bunched. Why can’t it be timely BECAUSE they were both about the same era of time? It was Oscar winning music that has somehow universally come to represent the time of the civil war. Anyway, the entire show was produced & directed poorly. Period. What happened to playing the winners music? Didn’t that used to be the norm? Maybe it’s time for the orchestra to take a hike altogether. After the musical extravaganza that was last nights show, I doubt many would object.
Christina: I don’t know. It was an odd choice. But so was playing the Forrest Gump Suite for the people who did the documentary about the homeless artist chick. I wasn’t offended by it, and I don’t get why people are ALWAYS so quick to be offended on behalf of everyone else. I guarantee you it wasn’t MEANT to be offensive. Hell, the orchestra wasn’t even in the same building. There’s a chance they were just told to play something, and not necessarily told WHAT to play (not likely, but possible). They played the Forrest Gump song at least two times. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention, but I didn’t hear any other repeats. Besides, the whole show was just terribly orchestrated (ha!), so anything is possible. People need to stop looking for things to take offense at.
Cindy: We need to do one of these things to vent our issues with over-sensitive whiny babies.
Melissa M: Nope. I mean, was it in poor taste? Yes. But of allllllll the things to be offended by last night, whether during the show or the aftermath, that was the least offensive to me. By a lot.
Thomas: I was asleep. They need to schedule these things for not in the middle of the damn night. It’s great that the sun doesn’t get to you until three hours after us, West Coast, but seriously, you’re only ¼ of our country and the rest of us have to work in the morning.
Melissa L: (I’m going to preface this by saying that if my comment is taken out, I’ll understand, but I’m going to be a bit more personal since I was involved in the discussion last night.)
Here was the thing. A few people on Twitter last night (including myself) made a brief comment at the time about the poor taste of the Academy in playing the GWTW score over a Django Unchained win. And that we found it offensive. That was it. That was the entire commentary. It was no more than the fact that I said I didn’t like the way Seth sexualized a nine year old or that I found the entire boob song intro offensive. We said it, we moved on. The comments were apparently perceived as an attack against GWTW itself. And yet somehow after I tried to simply explain the situation and where the offense was found, I (and those who agreed with me) are overly sensitive, getting our panties in a twist, and whiny babies. (Did I catch all the insults to my opinions from my ‘friends’? I’d hate to miss one).
There was no conspiracy about the evil supremacist Academy. We just stated that something was in poor taste. And none of us who made the comment about it being offensive in the first place made any indication that there was something wrong with people who thought it was fine. I’m still offended, but believe me, I don’t give a shit about when they played GWTW anymore. I’m offended at the attacks on my opinions and my person.

Adele won for “Skyfall” as Best Song. What is your all time favorite Oscar winning song?
Jema: Didn’t Toy Story win? Or Monsters Inc? Those. I live for that stuff.
Kate: “White Christmas” (1942!)
Cindy: “The Way We Were” (1973) or “You Must Love Me” (1996) I totally just went through the whole list. LOL
Christina: Haha, I had to go through the list too. Like I remember this kind of stuff. I’d have to go with “Falling Slowly” (2007). I can’t even think about that song without getting the feels. Or “Streets of Philadelphia,” (1993) but mostly because I love Philadelphia.
Melissa M: Sentimental- “Falling Slowly.” Just because now we all can say “Oscar Winner Eminem” it would be “Lose Yourself.” And not just because Barbra Streisand was the one who announced it that year. But that was pretty cool too.
Thomas: People have favorite Oscar winning songs? Did Metallica ever win?
Cindy: We’re girls, Thomas. You’re lucky we aren’t talking about favorite Oscar dresses of all time. Actually, thats not a bad idea…
Melissa L: “The Way You Look Tonight” (1936), “Moon River” (1961), “Falling Slowly”. I am kind of partial to the ‘94 nominees though since every single song was from a fairytale movie.

Was there a movie you loved that you feel wasn’t given the full honor of the Oscars?
Kate: Oh, I should have saved my Zero Dark Thirty answer for this question. And maybe Hunger Games.
Cindy: This year? I didn’t really have a dog in the race. I’m still pissed about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, pt2 was ignored last year. For the body of work of the franchise it at least deserved a nomination.
Christina: I didn’t see many of the nominated movies, so I don’t really feel like I can say any movie was “robbed.” However, I was extremely surprised that Ewan McGregor was not nominated for Supporting Actor for The Impossible when Naomi Watts was (and hers was in a Leading Role!). I don’t know if you saw that one, but… GOD. Talk about a downer. But if we’re judging nominations based on how well an actor does in the movie (is this not the criteria?), then I would have given it to McGregor before Watts. McGregor made me ugly cry. In the theater. Alone. Watts did not. Simple (non numerical) math. I wouldn’t have given him the award (hearts for Christoph Waltz!), but I would have at least nominated him.
Cindy: Word, Christina. So much word. I hate when shit like that happens. Like Kate & Leo in Titanic. She was great, but so was he. I mean, what is the criteria for performance here. Oh, that’s right, the lead actor slots never has enough slots. Lead actress, well, they sometimes have to *reach*, and I think they did exactly that this year.
Christina: Speaking of reaches, I was very surprised by Weaver getting the nom for Supporting Actress for Silver Linings Playbook. Sure, I guess she did a good job, but you know what the first thing I said when I got out of the theater was? “I really hated the mother. All she did was cry! She was on the verge of tears in every scene! I could have done without her.” So, yeah… being a teary-eyed blubberer is fine acting now? Maybe I’m uncultured.
Melissa M: I don’t think so…. But in general, I really wish Sci-Fi/Action/Fantasy got more love in things that have nothing to do with FX or sound or editing or some combination of those. Things like Harry Potter and Dark Knight deserve more love. Just because Return of the King won everything, doesn’t mean the Academy is off the hook every other year.
Thomas: The Avengers. Joss Whedon is a golden god and pretty much everything he touches turns into pure perfection. Someone needs to slip that man Jennifer Lawrence’s resume. She’s already been in an X-Men movie! She’s like this close!
Melissa L: I’m with the others who think Sci-Fi/Action/Fantasy should get more attention in main stream categories. Jennifer did amazing in Silver Linings. She also did amazing in Hunger Games. But only one will get the attention. And what Joss accomplished in directing The Avengers movie deserved some recognition as well. Unfortunately, the movies people actually watch will continue to have to accept their awards at the People’s Choice & Teen Choice Awards.
Melissa M: Just popping back in to say if Joss Whedon ever won for Director (and I think Avengers deserved more recognition than it got) I would probably be put in a padded room for the epic freak out that would ensue. I mean… just thinking about it is making me a little giddy. Also, if this J.Law/Whedon pairing that Thomas has suggested never happens I will never get over it. Make. It. Happen.

If you were to ever win an Oscar, who would be the first person you’d thank?
Jema: The person who cast me.
Kate: Probably whoever hired me or was otherwise responsible for getting me involved in the movie.
Christina: I probably wouldn’t be able to thank anyone because I would have passed out in my seat after they called my name. Once I came to, I’d knock myself unconscious by falling on the stairs (unlike Jennifer Lawrence who had the grace to get back up). However, if by some miracle this was all avoided, I’d have to thank… yeah, I agree with y’all… whoever got me on the movie in the first place.
Cindy: Exactly what Christina said. lol
Melissa M: Well, if I actually had my wits about me (which is unlikely, and it would probably go somewhat like Christina said) I would thank my Dad. He taught me to love film and the arts and to appreciate it even if people would say it is stupid and worthless and pretentious. He was the best for that and if I was ever up there, it would be because of him. But in reality I’d probably just word vomit inane nonsense and forget everyone who I’ve ever known.
Thomas: Nobody. I’d just stare at the camera, jaw clenched, eyes twitching, that little vein in my forehead pulsing, just daring them to start the Jaws music. Come on, punk. Make my day.
Melissa L: IF I didn’t freak out, I’d say my mom for reading Peter Pan to me when I was little and teaching me to fall in love with stories. I’d end by saying I was going to go stalk Jennifer Lawrence now.