Guess what season it is?!!!!?

If you guessed, "Olympic Season," please leave right now.  

NO!  It's AWARDS SEASON!  And I felt I needed to send an update, since this season was made for me.  Also coincides with BIRTHDAY SEASON.  

So, after we watched the Golden Globes, Ben had the idea that we needed to see every single nominee for Best Picture in preparation for the Academy Awards.  I was fine with this idea.  

We had already seen Gravity a while back...... Only eight more to go!!  It was a challenge we were both willing to take on.  

We haven't seen them all yet... I think we have three more to go, but we've seen a good chunk of them, and I thought you all might appreciate some little reviews.  :)  


GRAVITY

This picture pretty much sums it up.  No, I'm kidding.  

ONE SENTENCE PLOT:  A medical engineer is sent into space on her first mission to help repair parts of a space shuttle, but ends up on a mission for survival when something goes horribly wrong and she finds herself completely alone.

So, this movie was directed by one of the greats, Alfonso Cuaron.  We ALL know he's one of my faves.  Has directed such classics as: Y Tu Mama Tambien, A Little Princess, Children of Men, Great Expectations and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  He's just an amazing director.  He knows what's going on.

He wrote Gravity with his son, which is pretty cool.  I DEFINITELY appreciated the special effects.  And, it was a pretty bad-ass movie.  I mean, it was a action movie, set it space, with a woman leading the entire thing.  Which, I thought was awesome.  

It was scary.  It was every emotion.  Sandra Bullock gave a great performance.  It was literally a one-woman action movie.  And it succeeded at being that.  I could NEVER have handled this movie in 3D or Imax or any of those fancy things.  It was dizzying just the normal way.  

I had been picking this one to win all the sound awards, but after seeing Captain Phillips, I think they might take those.

My Gravity Picks:

- Best Director
- Best Cinematography
- Visual Effects

 Go see it!



DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
 

 
That's Jared Leto and Matty McConaughey.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT:  A carefree man finds out he's got HIV and ends up in a legal battle with the FDA as he tries to legally and illegally procure the necessary drugs to help keep himself and his new HIV+ friends alive.

So, wow.  This movie was great.  It was great.  Matthew McC was a powerhouse.  He truly gave a great performance.  

This was a very emotional movie.  It was also a scary movie.  Not like jumpy scary, but like scary because nobody really knew much about HIV and AIDS.  The movie started out in 1985, so it was pretty early on.  

And, this guy, the main guy, you were with him every step on his journey.  He also experienced every emotion.  I would describe this movie as, 'raw.'  

Man.  Definitely a movie not to be missed.  

My Dallas Buyers Club picks:

- Best Supporting Actor - Jared Leto.  (Hey, isn't that the guy from 30 Seconds to Mars?!?!  Yes.  Yes it is.  And he's very pretty.)

The academy loves a comeback and this is his.  Go get it!



 AMERICAN HUSTLE

 
 Directed by David O. Russell, also known for Silver Linings Playbook and I Heart Huckabees.  Fun Fact:  He's an Amherst College grad!  Not that I am, but I took classes (more specifically FILM CLASSES) at Amherst College.  So, not to brag, but I could prob do his job.  

ONE SENTENCE PLOT:  A seasoned con man and his lady partner might be in over their heads when, together with the FBI, they try and con the governor of New Jersey who has ties with the mob.  

I'm just gonna be honest with you:  This one has been my least favorite.  It has a lot of hype behind it.  It has an all-star cast.  Literally, they're all stars.  ;)  No breakout performances here.  

I definitely enjoyed this movie, it was a captivating storyline mixed with over the top costumes and hairdos.  And Christian Bale really is a spectacular actor.  He deserves all the praise in the world.  

I thought J.Law's performance was a tad lackluster.  She earned herself a nomination for best supporting actress, so she must have been doing something right.  But for me, EH.  I mean, she was kind of a wild card, over the top character and I think anybody else could have played it just as well as she did.  But they didn't, and that's why she got the nomination, I guess.  I thought she was better in Silver Linings Playbook.  

Let's talk about Amy Adams.  I feel like I've seen her in 100 movies this year, am I right?  HER PERFORMANCE was great.  Yeah she was great.  Her and Christian Bale could be in every movie together and I would see them all.  That's probably a fact.  I mean, The Fighter?  Come on!  That movie and those performances are crazy-good.  

Which brings me to my next segment, entitled,

CAN AMY ADAMS GET AWAY WITH NOT WEARING A BRA?

You know when you're coming home from a long day at work and you're just DYING to take your bra off?  I do.  It's like, the bra comes off and you can relax, the world gets better, the sun shines brighter, it's a beautiful thing.  So, in American Hustle, Amy Adams pretty much goes through the ENTIRE movie bra-less!  And, I will be honest, I'M JEALOUS.  

I was watching this movie, watching scene after scene after scene of bra-less Amy Adams, and just sitting in amazement.  Can she get away with it?

You be the judge!

Girl looks good. 


OK AMY, you got away with it!  And the WHOLE world is jealous.  I wouldn't be surprised if they gave the Best Actress statue to her.  I mean, look at her in all those photos!!!!  She's TAKING CHARGE!!  Any woman who can take charge like that all while going bra commando deserves an Oscar to me.  

My American Hustle picks:

- Best Actress - Amy Adams
- Best Costume Design (or lack thereof...)



NEBRASKA

 
 Yep, that's Will Forte!  And Bruce Dern!  Where have you seen him before?  Big Love.  He was Frank!  Bill Paxton's mean old scary father.  I was sure scared of him.  I was scared of a lot of people on that show.  

ONE SENTENCE PLOT:  An aging, alcoholic father believes he's won 1,000,000 sweepstakes prize so he and his son travel to Nebraska to claim the winnings.  

Everyone needs to see this movie.  I thought it was absolutely fantastic.  Everything about it, I loved.  The story was so real, so human, it was recognizable yet somehow extraordinary.  I simply loved it.  

Now, I pretty much knew that I was going to enjoy the movie, but it really exceeded my expectations.  And the music was beautiful.  

The movie was shot in black and white which I totally appreciated and I thought to be a really interesting film choice.  So, the film is pretty much a road trip movie.  It's set against all these beautiful landscapes.  I feel like normally, having these landscapes in color just adds to the beauty and vibrance of everything, but it did the opposite here.  It totally stripped the movie down.  This movie was raw, but in a different way than Dallas Buyers Club.  There was nothing flashy, nothing spectacular so all you were focusing on was the story.  I thought it was brilliant.  It almost made everything feel more epic.  

Oh, I loved Nebraska.  I think you will, too.  And after seeing it, I'm surprised Will Forte wasn't nominated for Best Supporting Actor.  I think he stood a really good chance.  

My picks here are a little torn.  MAINLY due to the fact that Bruce Dern is nominated for best actor against Leo.  MY Leo.  And I said before that the Academy loves a comeback, which could work in his favor.  

BUT LEO!  I haven't seen Wolf of Wall Street yet, so I can't give my picks for sure.  

I think it stands a good chance at Best Original Screenplay.... but it's up against....



HER

  

 

 This movie stands a great chance at Best Picture.  

ONE SENTENCE PLOT:  Lonely guy living in near-future Los Angeles develops a romantic relationship with his new, personalized computer operating system.  

If Instagram made a movie - it would be HER.  Spike Jonze must have invented a new Instagram filming camera because I swear every scene in this movie had the perfect filter.  It was beautiful!!!

This is a movie where color made ALL the difference!  It was a STATEMENT.  This color shirt that Joaquin is wearing, kind of like an orange-red, was featured all over the place.  And, man, he looks GREAT in that color!  It was full of bright, warm, friendly colors just like it.  

Like one scene, there was this group of people walking past Joaquin and one of them was wearing a yellow blazer and burgundy pants and the other person was wearing yellow tights and a burgundy dress!  They were matched together perfectly.  It felt very organized.  Like every detail of this movie was placed together just perfectly to create every beautiful scene.  I applaud you, Spike.  

The soundtrack was wonderful.  Joaquin was wonderful.  Another great actor who deserves all the praise in the world.  And... Amy Adams!  Yep!  She's in two of the best picture nominees this year!  Her and Joaquin must be old pals after also having worked together in The Master.  She had a pretty small role in this one.  It felt like they gave her all the 'tagline dialogue.'  This is a phrase I just made up for all the dialogue that is in the trailer, or dialogue that "sums up the movie without the character realizing that she's summing up the movie."  Ya know, old tricks like that.  

It was such an innocent storyline that could probably have been pretty weird and creepy if done wrong.  We all know that Scar Jo is the voice of the computer system (except Ben, who exclaimed, "That's who that was!" after reading her name in the credits) and she most certainly adds the sex appeal to Joaquin's scenes when it's pretty much himself through the whole thing.  

 It was so enjoyable, so easy to sit through, so sweet.  It was amazing at how much you didn't notice that it was only a voice and not a real person he was talking to.  I guess because it wasn't.  She definitely had a personality and held her own as a character.  And it was like watching a real relationship unfold throughout the whole thing.  Beautiful. 

Yeah, we both loved this one.  Ben was quoted in saying after we saw it, "This is the first one we've seen that I think actually stands a chance at Best Picture."  

Well said.



CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

 

I was a little nervous about seeing this movie because of how scary it looked.  And, all those feelings were pretty much validated!  

ONE SENTENCE PLOT:  The crew of a cargo tanker is hijacked by Somali pirates and the ship's captain taken hostage for five days.  

Did I mention this is a true story?  And the real Captain Phillips lives in Vermont!  That's probably as close to Tom Hanks as I'll ever get. 

So, this movie was directed by Paul Greengrass, who directed the Bourne movies.  If not all of them, at least The Bourne Ultimatium. So, this guy knows action movies.  

And whoa - this movie was INTENSE.  There was a lot of yelling.  Yelling all over the place.  It was scary.  Not like Dallas Buyers Club scary, but ACTUALLY SCARY.  I think pirates are terrifying.  They were.  They are.  

It was a good movie.  Very well-done.  Very emotional.  The ending of the movie was probably the most emotional sequence of all of the movies we've seen so far.  WELL, I guess Gravity gives it a good run for its money.  But still.  Wow.  Tom Hanks gives a great performance, but I don't think anyone's surprised by it.  The Somali actors playing the pirates were found in Minneapolis, which apparently has the largest Somali population in the country, and man, they really took charge.  Not just because it was their role, but because they were doing it right.  These guys totally 'Amy Adams'd' their way onto the Hollywood scene.  



 - - - - -


And there you have it!!!  We've still got Philomena, 12 Years a Slave and The Wolf of Wall Street to see.  I'm really excited about Philomena, that just looks incredible.  I'll post my reviews of those once we see 'em.  

All in all, I can't believe how HUMAN all of these movies are.  There are some great characters and some great writing this year and it makes me so excited.  I feel like I've been privy to enter the lives of these real people and experience the whole realm of their emotion.  It's really beautiful.  

Ben and I were talking about movies where the characters lead the story rather than the story leading the characters, and I would say the overwhelming majority this year have been the characters leading the story.  With exception to Captain Phillips and maybe Gravity.  But Gravity only had one character in it and she fought back to whatever the story threw at her, so that one is kinda tough.  

BUT WOW.  It's a great year for movies, guys.  You should go out and see all of these.  Let me know what you think!  Really!  You know I love hearing from you.  

Talk to you all soon!  Enjoy the beauty of awards season!  


Love your friend,
Julie