Midnight in Paris

Best PictureQuest - Film #6

Midnight in Paris is, again, a movie I'd been interested to see when it first came out. I was curious in a mild sort of way - it looked good, it seemed funny, there were lots of good people in it, etc., but in the way these things sometimes go, the chance to see it passed me by, until...Best PictureQuest 2012.

So Gil (Owen Wilson) and his fiancee Inez (Rachel McAdams) are in Paris. Gil is a screen writer, working on his first novel, and Inez just seems to be the daughter of snotty rich people. She doesn't appear to do much of anything except whine and wear pretty clothes. They meet up with some of Inez's friends, the pedantic Paul (a very disguised Michael Sheen) and his wife? Girlfriend? and what started out as a romantic getaway before their wedding turns out to be dominated by Paul, a droning intellectual. Poor Gil just doesn't seem to fit - he doesn't get along with his future in-laws (daddy is a Tea Party Republican on top of it), and he doesn't get a long with wind bag, know-it-all Paul, who argues with a docent on a Rodin tour. Yeah, he's one of those. All Gil really wants to do is let Paris inspire him. Oh, yeah, and he wants to walk around in the rain.

Is it any wonder that Gil longs for the nostalgia and simplicity of an earlier time? He longs for 1920s Paris, and one night, following a wine tasting, he gets lost on the streets of Paris and is picked up by a carful of noisy Parisians. He gets swept along - into the past. Glorious Paris of the 1920s, into the world of Cole Porter, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Pablo Picasso. He goes to a party there, spends some time chilling with the Fitzgeralds, and Hemingway agrees to show his novel to Stein, and then Gil wakes up back in 2010.

Why he doesn't think that this is all a crazy kind of dream, I don't know, but he is determined to share this glittering world with Inez. He drags her back to the place where the car picked him up and.... nothing happens. She thinks he's nuts, with a possible brain tumor, and gets a cab back to their hotel. He hangs around, and at the stroke of midnight, the car comes back, taking him back to the 1920s. He meets Picasso's mistress, played gorgeously by Marion Cotillard (in beautiful, beautiful 1920s flapper style dresses) and kind of falls for her. It turns out that she is longing for the simpler, more glorious era of France in the Belle Epoch. He figures out, after a while, that everyone thinks their own time sucks and wants to be in what they perceive as a golden age. But is anyone happier about it? No. Stein and Hemingway have read his book, which he seems to be basing on his real life, because Hemingway wonders why the protagonist has not figured out why the fiancee is having an affair with her pedantic friends. The light goes on, Gil confronts Inez about it. They split up, Gil goes walking and meets up with a shop keeper he's been chatting with - a Cole Porter-phile named Gabrielle, who also likes to walk in the rain, and they walk off together, hand-in-hand through the rain soaked streets.

Aaaaannnd, that's it. This film was notable mainly for its gorgeous footage of Paris. It had snappy Woody Allen sounding dialogue, and was funny in the way Woody Allen movies are funny, you know? I didn't quite understand why Gil and Inez were together in the first place, because there was absolutely nothing likeable about her. Nothing. (But I still love you, Rachel).

I am also a bit lukewarm on Owen Wilson as a leading man. I think they were going for a sort of every man vibe with him, and he wandered through the film kind of baffled. It worked, I guess, but I didn't care very much about him as a character, so by the end I was kind of like, oh. Okay. Well good for you, but why didn't you dump that bitch sooner? And I know the trips to the past were the whole point of the thing, but it became a little too much, like, here's Dali (even though Adrien Brody was a hilarious high point), and here's Toulouse Loutrec, and let's cram as many references as we can into here even though it's getting kind of annoying now.

Still, it was enjoyable. Was it Oscar worthy? I don't know. What I can tell you, is that I am not a huge Francophile - and this movie made me want to go to Paris. I think there should totally also be an Oscar category for that.

I have three more films on the list to see - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (still in theaters), Tree of Life (red box) and War Horse (I fear I've missed the boat on this one). I guess we'll see how close we get to the goal by the time the broadcast comes along.

Moneyball

Best PictureQuest - Film #5

I'm going to be honest. I don't like baseball. I think it is probably the most boring sport on the face of the earth. I live in Chicago, and we have 2 teams here. If pressed, I'd probably pledge my allegiance to the Cubs, for no other reason than my family are Cubs fans, and I went to college on the North Side. Not very good reasons, but the truth is I just don't care that much. And I'm fine with that. I think it might be fun to go and sit at Wrigley and watch a game, and I have done that. I'm just not much of a fan.

Naturally, baseball movies aren't my favorites either. I stay away in droves. This was the case with Moneyball when it first came out. I had no interest. Zero. Nada. But I was told by several people that I like very much that Moneyball was really very good and not all about baseball, and then I saw an interview with Brad Pitt where he talked about the movie, and damn it, I decided I had to give it a try. Plus, it was part of the all-important Best PictureQuest, and so there was really no other alternative.

I got it out of a Red Box (thank you, Red Box!). It is the true story of Oakland A's GM Billy Beane, a former baseball player himself, who has to find a new way to scout players on the A's slender budget. He uses statistics, rather than other generally accepted scouting methods, to create his team, much to the dismay of the scouts who have made their livelihoods in finding quality players by, you know, watching them play and assessing their potential.

I had never really thought a lot about Brad Pitt as an actor - since his work has sort of been eclipsed by his personal life, but he is a fine actor, and does a great job with Billy Beane. I mean honestly, he made me CARE about a baseball story. The man should get an Oscar just for that.

Hugo

Best PictureQuest - Film #4

This is yet another film that I'd wanted to see when it was first released, and another one where I have read the source material. Hugo Cabret is a young boy left orphaned and living in a Paris train station, ostensibly with his uncle. His father is a clockmaker, and his uncle is responsible for setting all of the clocks in the station, and he teaches Hugo to do the job. Once his uncle disappears, this job is all that stands between Hugo and a trip to the orphanage. He keeps the clocks running and stays out of the sight of the Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen, delightfully diabolical). He is caught attempting to steal from a toy booth owned by a cranky old man (Ben Kingsley). He is forced to turn over his notebook, filled with drawings of mechanical looking devices. The old man demands to know if Hugo made the drawings, but Hugo will not give away his secret. The old man threatens to burn the notebook and report Hugo to the Station Inspector. The boy flees and we learn his secret - he is trying to rebuild a mechanical man, abandoned in the museum where his father worked, and rescued by Hugo when a fire that claims his father's life destroys the museum. He is convinced that the mechanical man, when fixed, will contain a message to him from his father. He meets the old man's ward, Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), who promises that she will prevent cranky old Papa Georges from burning Hugo's necklace. Together, the two of them uncover the secret of the mechanical man - a secret that is connected to Papa Georges himself.

It's another very faithful adaptation of a book - The Invention of Hugo Cabret, told in both words and beautiful pictures. It was fun to watch this book come to life on the screen, in vivid detail from director Martin Scorcese. We saw it in 3D which didn't enhance it much for me (but maybe I was just cranky because I had to wear the 3D glasses over my regular glasses which was a little bit awkward).

The Help

Best PictureQuest - Film #3

This is another film that I'd wanted to see when it was first released, but that I missed. Do you see how this quest could have been so much easier if I had just seen these things when I first heard about them?? But anyway, thank you, Village Crossing Blockbuster store.

I had read the book "The Help" right before the film was released. The film was a fairly faithful adaptation about a group of African American maids serving white families in Civil Rights Era Mississippi. A young writer, Skeeter Phelan (the awesome Emma Stone) wants to write a book from the point of view of the help, talking about what it is like for them to essentially raise white children and keep house for their families, while being kept completely separate. The real reason to see this movie is for Viola Davis's performance as Aibileen and Octavia Spencer's performance as Minny, the two maids at the center of the story. They breathe life into the movie, which is otherwise somewhat uninspiring.

I liked this movie, although I found the book to be more powerful.

The Descendants

Best PictureQuest - Film #2

This is one of the movies that I'd been wanting to see since it was released.

It's just another day in paradise for Matt King (played by George Clooney) - but don't let the stunning Hawaiian setting fool you - even though he lives in a beautiful tropical setting, his life is far from trouble-free. His wife is in a coma, following a boating accident. Things haven't been going too well between the two of them, but the accident has made him realize that he is ready to refocus on this relationship. As we will see, it is a little late for that - not only is his wife in a coma, it's unlikely that she will ever wake up. Just as we're starting to think that the film will be about Matt as a kind of clueless dad to rambunctious Scotty and wild child Alexandra, dealing with the whole coma situation, we learn something else: Matt's wife has been having an affair. As a successful, workaholic lawyer, Matt has no clue about this either. Everything he thought he knew has changed in an instant.

It's a pretty film to watch, first of all for the exotic location, and secondly for the performances put in by George Clooney, Shailene Woodley and the rest of the cast.

The Artist

Best PictureQuest 2012 - Film #1

I had heard so many good things about this movie, even though I knew next to nothing about it. I watched as it won piles of awards and decided to see what all the shouting was about. The Artist is a black and white, pretty much silent movie. A beloved silent screen star (played by the incredibly charming Jean DuJardin) finds himself losing his fame as silent films are being taken over by talking pictures. I had wondered how a silent film would look and feel in 2012, and it felt incredibly fresh. DuJardin is joined by a solid cast, including guardian angel Berenice Bejo as Peppy Miller, and the smartest, cutest little dog ever. It was an unexpected delight. This one is my personal favorite of the films that I have seen, and my frontrunner for Best Picture, AND Lead Actor.

It's still in theaters, so go see it while you can. It's amazing everything these talented actors can project without saying a word.

Best PictureQuest 2012

Every year I say I will see all of the Oscar Best Picture nominees before the broadcast. Every.Single.Year. And it never ever happens. This is party due to laziness, and also partly due to the fact that the Best Picture nominees are usually films that are good in a snobby, movie critic kind of way, the kind of way that is completely over my head, OR they are films that I have no interest in seeing. And then, you know, they opened the field to allow up to 10 best picture nominees. If I couldn't do five, raising the number to ten is just another obstacle.

This year, I'm close. So close (incredibly close?). This year, the Best Picture nominees are ones I actually had interest in seeing. Woo hoo! I have, to date, seen six of the nine. I have decided to review them, for your reading pleasure. So stay tuned.

The Quest Continues...

gridiron confessions part 2

So, now you know I am a football hooligan in a cunning disguise. Let's talk about teams now. I don't necessarily hold with the fact that you HAVE to like the team in the city where you live. That is just geography. I think you can cheer for whoever you want to cheer for, and it doesn't matter where you might live.

I live in the Chicago suburbs. Therefore, by rights, my team should be the Bears. And I've tried this. I have. I mentioned the '85 Bears in my last post. I watched the game. Since then, though, they have caused me nothing but heartache, so I've started scouting around for other teams (plus, you know, blue and orange? yuck.). I flirted with many teams, trying to find the right one. In my early days, I liked the Giants (I think that this is because my love of NYC began very early, and anything associated with it automatically became cool. This did not hold true of the Jets, though, for some reason. Giants = cool, Jets = thugs. That's the way it is.), the Raiders (cute logo! arrrghhh!), the Dolphins (pretty teal uniforms!) and a few others. My first major team crush though, was the Cowboys. I was in high school and I was bat shit crazy about the Dallas Cowboys. I don't know why. It was fun to watch Troy Aikman throw and Emmit Smith run. They were good. They were all-American. They were Cowboys.

Plus, it really annoyed this guy I went to school with, who was part of the group I hung with. So, after awhile, I just wore my Cowboys gear (oh yes, I had gear) on Mondays just to annoy him. He liked the 49ers who had a big rivalry with the Cowboys (at least, our rivalry was big). Whenever the 49ers would lose, I would say something to him about it like "24-17, huh? That sucks.". And if the 'Boys lost, he'd come and quote scores and records at me. And I'd say something awesome like "At least they aren't the 49ers." (I didn't have The Knowledge that I spoke of in the last post. That came later.)

But that phase ended. I broke up with the Cowboys and now I think they are obnoxious. I always got a lot of crap for liking them anyway (my dad called them "Cowpies" just to annoy me. Now I call them that too.). So it was back to the Bears for a while. But they are problematic. Like the ex-boyfriend you keep going back to. It's good for a while, and then they fall back into their same old asshole-ish habits. So I scouted for a new team. For a while it was the Colts (I mean, Peyton Manning, come on! Awesome!) but then they tanked. If I wanted to support a losing team, I'd just stick with the heartbreaking Bears, you know?

I know, I know, that's fairweather fan-ish. You have to take the good with the bad, and support them no matter what. But it's been too many times with the Bears, you know? What's a girl to do?

So I'm on the hunt for a new team. I like the Giants, obviously, and the Saints. I liked the Lions for a while, too, so I guess we'll see.

gridiron confessions

I am a football hooligan. This may come as a surprise to the people who think of me as a sweet, quiet, foreign film watching, vampire series reading, broadway music listening culture princess who loves to shop. But it's true.

It began quite early, you see. I was 7 years old in 1985 when the Bears went to the Super Bowl. I knew all of the players in the starting lineup AND all the words to the Super Bowl Shuffle. I didn't know anything about the game then, but my parents were into it, and I was too. We also started spending Super Bowl Sunday with friends of my parents. I would eat chili and play with their cute toy poodle, but sometimes there was nothing else to do but pay attention to the game. And so I learned things. It was more fun to me to understand what was going on - it helped, too, during Thanksgiving when most of the day was spent with chips and dip in front of the tv. My dad took part in pools in the places where he worked, and one day, for fun, we decided to do it at home, too.

I picked teams for the stupidest of reasons, I liked the color of their uniforms, or they had a cute player, or I liked their city. The funny thing was, a lot of the times, I picked correctly, without even knowing anything about anything. We used to play for money, but now it's just for fun. (And no, I don't pick them like that anymore. I read the papers and look up stats and stuff like that). My parents are kind of amused, because I will sit in front of a game with them, sometimes I'll read, or sometimes I'll knit or whatever, just listening to what's going on, and watching, if it is super interesting, and then later, I can have actual knowledgeable football conversations. It's a little bit dazzling, because it is, I think, so unexpected. Here's an example, one day this past winter, my dad was wondering if a coach had ever been fired mid-season, and I answered, yes, that Vikings guy was fired last year before Thanksgiving. I didn't remember his name (looked it up later - Brad Childress) - it just soaks in. My parents were suitably dazzled. I don't know where it comes from. I'll just pick things up, like, subliminally, and they get stored in a little football brain folder, ready to be accessed again at a suitably appropriate time.

So last night, I was in front of the tv, watching the game, and transformed from sweet, quiet regular me into crazy, football hooligan me, yelling at the screen, clapping when the Giants made a good move and booing heartily when the Patriots did just about anything. It was crazy. It makes a difference, of course, when I actually like one of the teams playing. Last year, I was like, yawwwwnnn, whatever, Packers, who cares, bring on the commercials!

I have never actually been to a game, but really want to go to one. Like, a pre-season one. I am not so dedicated that I will sit around in freezing temps, to watch these guys run around. I know that makes it more authentic or something, but whatever.

So now you know my secret.