Last week I walked to Juan's Cafe, where besides serving good food in a lovely courtyard setting, he also sells DVD's. If you want the latest, before they even get to the movie theaters, Juan has them. I don't ask questions as to how.........
I selected five - two of which were August: Osage County and American Hustle. Juan has a list of the nominees for the Golden Globes and since these two were in the comedy category for awards, I expected to have funny movies.
Au contrare, nothing could be farther from the truth.
August: Osage County was about one of the most dysfunctional families that I've ever seen portrayed on the screen. Sheesh. From the boozing father to the drug addicted mother (Meryl Streep) to the daughter getting divorced to one who was having an affair with her brother...........it was something else.
Now in defense of the daughter having an affair with her brother, she thought he was her cousin! The third sister had a boyfriend who hit on the 14 year old daughter of the one getting a divorce.
The acting was extraordinary - especially Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. But funny or even humorous, it was not.
American Hustle had an excellent cast. Two women that I wasn't familiar with that much and two key male actors. It was a true story of how the government entrapped a bunch of politicians in New Jersey and felt they had benefitted the country by prosecuting them and jailing them.
The acting was quirky, with many twists and turns. Take two beautiful women and a few erotic scenes plus
good acting and you have an award winner. They proved it last night.
The third movie I watched that was nominated was The Butler. Acting, again was excellent. Story was true and the real live footage incorporated into the movie, was interesting to see.
My neighbor, in the guest house, is from Zacatecas and 24 years old. He was not aware of the civil rights struggle to that degree in the USA. We had an fascinating conversation about it and his impressions.
Actually, I think he was shocked that in the USA, the land of the free, there were and are people still oppressed. I assume he knows about his own countrymen being oppressed in America, but I don't think he new about the civil rights movement.
I've got more movies to watch. Gravity, Saving Mr. Banks, Capt. Phillips and All Is Lost with Robert Redford. If you're interested, I'll share my two cents worth when finished. I still want to get Nebraska and Inside Llewelyn Davis. I hope one of these has some uplifting, if not humorous feeling to it.
I was surprised at the Golden Globes last night in that the awards were spread out throughout several movies and not just one or two. It was a delightful evening of seeing actors and actresses that I haven't seen in a while.
9 comments:
Always glad to read movie reviews (at least from smart people ;-)
I thought the American Hustle movie was long and disjointed - but as you suggest some fine actors in Bale, Adams and more.
I really liked the Redford movie - but then you knew that ;-).
Calypso, I agree it was disjointed at times and sometimes they mumbled and I had to replay to try to hear what they said......However, if I was a man, I would have enjoyed immensely the "eye candy" of the two women who I thought were sexy and beautiful.......
I'm going to watch the Redford movie tonight. Recently saw "The Way We Were" on TCM and enjoyed it all over again. Redford is one hot dude!
We're headed to see August in a few hours. Saw the other two movies and both were good. Captain Phillips is gripping! I'm not even sure my son understands the true extent to which African-Americans and others were oppressed in this country. He grew up in suburban Seattle with friends and classmates from lots of different nationalities/races. This was a good year for movies!
I thought "Inside L. Davis" was dull. It was the music of my childhood,true, but it really seemed to go nowhere. So, IMHO, save it for last.
Thanks Christine - Others have had similar comments.
Beck, I doubt, unless you lived through the time that you would understand the depth of the civil unrest and struggles. We sure have lived through interesting times, haven't we?
Nothing funny about these movies which are about despicable people leading despicable lives.
Sure we can all play movie critic and say "great performance" incredible "directing" yet it's a horrible experience to sit there and watch. Add to that - we must pay to see these movies here NOB which makes it worse.
Edit (myself)
I saw "Blue Jasmine" and it's a fantastic movie.
Thanks Rick for verbalizing my feelings about both those movies. I'm so glad I didn't pay a lot of money to see either of those movies.
There have been others, in years past, that won an Oscar for best movie and five or ten minutes into it, I stopped the DVD player and threw the movie away. At a cost of $3.20USD, its not a loss at all.
I was wondering about Blue Jasmine, I'll get it!
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