The Academy Awards

It’s one of the best times of the year: awards season!!! The Oscars are tomorrow night, and some pretty great movies were released in 2012. How does the Academy choose from so many fantastic options? Here are my favorites of the nominees in the top categories. I have only ranked what I have seen. 

Best picture:

1. Zero Dark Thirty

2. Lincoln

3. Django Unchained

4. Silver Linings Playbook
5. Argo

6. Beasts of the Southern Wild

Actor in a leading role:

1. Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln

2. Denzel Washington in Flight

3. Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook

Actress in a leading role:

1. Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty

2. Quvenzhane Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild (amazing)

3. Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook

Actor in a supporting role:

1. Christopher Waltz in Django Unchained

2. Robert de Niro in Silver Linings Playbook

3. Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln
4. Alan Arkin in Argo

Actress in a supporting role:

1. Sally Field in Lincoln

2. Jacki Weaver in Silver Linings Playbook

BBC published an interesting article this week about film-makers "courting" the Oscars voters. Check it out here if you're interested.

Did you catch any of the Oscar-nominated films? What are your picks?

Happy birthday, Abraham Lincoln...

...one day late. Thank you for being such an admirable leader of our country.

"People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."

"Whatever you are, be a good one."

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

But this post isn't really about Abe Lincoln, the man...

If you’re in a hurry, read this line and move on to the next blog post on your to-read list. Go see the film Lincoln. Here is a link to trailers and such in case you've been affected by power outages for the last few months and have not heard of the movie.

If it’s still playing in theaters near me, it’s more than likely also showing near you. Go to a matinee; you won’t regret it. I don’t count it as a must-see theater movie, but if you plan to catch the Academy Awards on February 24, you are going to have wished you’d seen this movie.

I in no way claim to be a movie buff, but thanks to some friends who are, I am beginning to form some opinions about film-making and -quality. I won’t go into too much detail and reveal how much of a novice I still am ;), but I believe every American should see Lincoln. It is your duty. Put it right up there with voting.

American duties:

1. Vote

2. Watch Lincoln

From a historical perspective, Lincoln made me want to refresh my knowledge of Civil War history, and I was a little embarrassed that I only knew something about one out of every three or four political figures mentioned in the film. I have been inspired to do my civil homework!

As for the Oscars (full list of nominations here), I will not be surprised nor upset if Lincoln sweeps every category in which it’s nominated. Maybe I will revise my opinion next week after I’ve watched a couple more best-picture nominees, but of the four I’ve seen (Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Lincoln, and Silver Linings Playbook), Lincoln triumphs, hands-down. Daniel Day-Lewis is outstanding. Sally Field, who to me will always be the Flying Nun, is fantastic. I’ve liked Tommy Lee Jones since seeing him in The Fugitive as a youngster, and he simply could not have given a better performance in this film. I can’t imagine the great insight he gave to young actors on the set of Lincoln, or at least I hope he did. The costumes, production design, and attention to set detail in this movie are phenomenal. I love music and original scores and was honestly so engrossed in the film I barely noticed the soundtrack until the second half, but it fits in this movie like your favorite Smartwool socks: just right. Spielberg should bag his third Best Director Award. This could go on all day, so get thee to the theater and see for yourself! If you don’t make it, though, call me in a few months. I can’t wait to get my hands on the special features of the DVD release and will be happy to share after I’ve had my fill of Abraham Lincoln and one of the most important eras of American history...IF I ever get my fill :)

Have you seen Lincoln? What did you think?

Cheers

"Hey! Unto you a blog is born."

"Hey! Unto you a blog is born." -Gladys Herdman, if she had a blog. I never really get out of the Christmas spirit, so it only seemed fitting to begin with a semi-quote from The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

Today is my day off from work for the week. When I was a tween and had a day off from school, my mom would call and ask what I’d done all day. Usually, I’d reply with, “Not much,” hoping that she wasn’t curious enough for details. She usually was. A day of watching Nickelodeon, shooting basketball, and deciding which two songs to download next from WinMX was not an acceptable response, though it was the truth. There were plenty of chores to be done, and I was “lazy,” though I preferred the term “dreamer,” because it made me sound artsy and cool, instead of negligent. In fifteen years, not much has changed. When I see her later today I’m not sure she will be pleased to learn that after sleeping ‘til 8:30, lying in bed reading tweets for an hour, drinking coffee, watching Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s inauguration day episodes, and reading some articles online, all I have done is started a blog. Thankfully, there are some hours left in the day to be productive.

I am now living in Southwest Georgia/the boondocks/the sticks/the land of no wireless Internet. It is yet to be determined if this post will ever make its way to cyberspace, as I’m relying on a little Verizon hotspot thing that I plug into my USB port. I am creating this blog because presently my day-to-day activities are nothing short of mundane, and hopefully one day I will have fun things to share, like work stories I can tell without violating HIPAA or photos of my children or something. But for now, please expect funny pictures of my dog and a meager attempt to stay connected with friends who are now spread across the nation.

When I lived in Chattanooga, my roommate Amy and I each got a labrador puppy from some dear friends who lived nearby. For a while, we toyed with the idea of being co-posters of a Tumblr account that featured daily puppy activity. Its name was to be A Tale of Two Tails, but unfortunately the site never made it past the color-choosing part of development. Since the short-lived Tale of Two Tails page, I have thought about how fun it would be to post pictures or links of things I like without cluttering up your social media feeds. So here we are at Title TBD for that to happen. It’ll be here for you to visit to see the most recent Ranger (my dog) snapshots, but no hard feelings if you never come back. Here is a glimpse of what you may be missing, though: my dad captured this moment on Christmas morning 2012, just after Ranger received his Christmas present of new bedding for his doghouse (which he promptly chewed up). Also pictured: the feet belonging to Mama and me (how do you gracefully put that in a sentence? Mama’s and my feet? Our feet--Mama’s and mine? Whatever).

Happy Tuesday. I hope your 2013 is off to a great start.

Cheers