The Zone of Interest (2023)

Bizarre as it sounds, for a movie I really didn't like that much, I'm going to be writing a lot about it.
Mainly so I can empty my head with all of the thoughts, good and mostly bad, swimming around my head about it.

Two subject matters shown a lot in film and media in general that show the worst of humanity- The Holocaust and slavery. Both are subjects we were still learning from and aspiring to be better people by not repeating past mistakes. And this is by no means an editorial about how we should stop doing movies on these dark corners of human history.
If anything, this is my critique on how "The Zone of Interest" sort of missed the mark telling its Holocaust era story. At least it did when I was actually watching it. Afterwards, that's an entirely different story.

Here's the basic premise:
The movie follows the family of a notable SS officer. Their home is situated in the country outside Auschwitz, arguably the most famous of the concentration camps, if not the most well-known one. And basically, they're maintaining a typical everyday life indifferent to the atrocities happening just on the other side of the tall fences and barbed wire. 
It shows the family dynamic between the officer and his wife and their commonplace struggles. But it also shows him doing his job without us really seeing him in a day in his work life. 

The biggest issue I have this movie in general-- despite the muted palettes of colors used throughout the movie and the plainness of how the characters look (except when Rudolf is in uniform), it very much feels like Jonathan Glazer chose style over substance. 
It was a foreign film where there were subtitles, but it also had that cringey artsy feel to it. 
I'm not joking- there are 3 moments in the movie where there's a screen devoid of any visual and it stays that way for a long time. Imdb had the minutes- the first 5 minutes is a black screen with droning intense music. There's a midpoint where they show a bunch of flowers in the garden and it ends with the screen being washed over with red and it's a solid red for 20 seconds. Then before the credits roll- a black scroll with intense music. No time stamp on this one, but I expected to see a postscript of some kind, only to be disappointed and further disillusioned. 
There's also two night scenes where this girl is planting fruit in the ground- the scenery is black but you can see the outline of some objects and she and the fruit are ghostly white. Because this occupied the scenes where Rudolf is reading bedtime stories, I didn't know if this was a nightmare sequence or it was actually happening. It was the latter, supposedly. I just didn't want it to give me nightmares once I got through this movie because it was spooky.

This movie won 2 Oscars. One was for Sound and that was the part I really didn't like. One too many moments where a single note was held way too long. I get that the point was to make the audience uncomfortable. But it accomplished it in probably the way they didn't intend. It's sort of like uncomfortable silences in conversation that go on way too long. The movie is an hour and 46 minutes, but I was thinking through some of these scenes-- this could've been edited out or shortened.

As for the movie itself... I was just bored. At one point I even fell asleep because I was waiting for some dramatic turn of events to happen. There was no plot at all. The closest thing we had to it was Rudolf and Hedwig talking about his transfer to another camp and how she doesn't want to uproot their family to move with him... since they have the "perfect" country life where they are. He ultimately grants her this request.
None of the characters are really interesting to spend time with or to even look at. Although for a movie like this, it'd be sending the wrong message if they cast well-known or at least good looking people to play the roles. Everyone was very plain looking and there was no dynamic range at all.

Oddly enough, I got more out of this movie reading about it afterwards than actually watching it. 
We never see the atrocities firsthand but there are a little hints of it sprinkled throughout. Some were more obvious than others. The ones not so obvious, it was shocking to read. 
There were two scenes where there was a lot of washing and sanitizing. The first is the children swimming in the river by the house, their father finds human remains in the river and they're immediately brought back and scrubbed to the bone. I knew the significance of what he found, but it took me a while to realize they were scrubbing because it was Jewish remains, not just human remains. Then there's another scene where he commits adultery with an inmate and the scene after, he's cleaning away the "filth." Nothing graphic is shown, but it was still a moment that made me think. 

Two things I saw early on in the movie and completely missed the significance. At one point, Hedwig is trying on a fine fur coat and the lipstick inside it. Then she gives it to a maid to have washed and the lining fixed. I thought maybe that the wife was actually one of the maids and she didn't want to get caught wearing the wife's clothes. Nope-- I completely missed the fact the coat had been taken from one of the Jewish prisoners.
Then a scene later where the two boys are playing with a bunch of teeth. Again, I didn't recognize until reading about it that they were gold teeth taken from prisoners. 
The last time I saw anything relating to the Holocaust was in college- 2008- so there were a lot of things associated with that time I forgot about.

The callousness did show well in the scenes where Rudolf was talking about the design for the Final Solution in the camps. How "loads" would be moved from one scene to the next and later "reloaded." And he says it so casually like he's doing dirty laundry. :cringe: 

The phrase "banality of evil" repeated in nearly every review I read. To the point, I got sick of reading it over and over again. 
The movie showed that off well, but did the movie itself have to be so banal or so boring to watch?
I realize these aren't characters you're supposed to like or support. But I just kept thinking- why should I care about these people? I see movies for a compelling story or memorable characters and it succeeded in neither of these. 

The best part might have been the ending- where we transition from a Nazi party to the same building in present day now being a museum. Where there were people, there's several exhibits of shoes and clothing taken from Jews. Portraits on all the walls of the people who were murdered in this facility. 

Going into this movie, I kinda thought that it was a regular German family living outside the camp and accepting they're living next to these horrible chimneys where the air always smiles of burning flesh... I didn't know it was going to be the family of SS. 
Or that this was even based on an actual person. 
Other reviews had said that this movie was "inspired" by the book of the same name, but not "based" on it. Jonathan Glazer, the director, just took the idea and did his own thing with it. 
Anyway, to cut to the end of all this, the real Rudolf Hoss was sentenced at Nuremburg and later executed. And his wife never denounced or showed regret for what they did. 
I suppose they really just wanted this message to sink in, but for me, I think I would've preferred some sort of postscript. Just so I feel like some sort of "story" had been actually told here.

In my Holocaust class in college, we saw a couple of films. Mostly the propaganda films. But the one that stuck with me the most was "The Grey Zone." It showed the atrocities in the camps, people getting sent to gas chambers. Then the people working in the camp (one being David Arquette) find a girl who survived it and they try to keep her hidden from their superiors. In the end, she is found out and she's told to run to the exit... the movie cuts to black and ends there. To this day, I still don't know if they let her escape or she'd been shot. 
I was numb for a couple of days after that-- it genuinely broke something inside me. Thankfully at that point, I made some friends at school and being with them helped me get past all that. 
That's the type of reaction I expected to get from "The Zone of Interest," but instead I found myself being so un-interested in it... I kept thinking I should change the channel and find something else, but I wanted to see if it got better... it never really did. 
Not saying the movie is bad. I can objectively say it succeeded on some levels in sending its message. I just didn't like it and I wouldn't want to see it again. And that's perfectly acceptable.

Steven Spielberg called this the best Holocaust movie since his own- meaning "Schindler's List." I have yet to see that one and one day, I really should... I'm sure it'll fall more in line with what I expect from a movie on this subject matter. 

Robert Downey Jr. wins!!- and other 2024 Oscar highlights

(had to find a photo somewhere online just to remind myself this actually happened)

Victory Lap

RDJ first appeared on my radar in 2008 with Tropic Thunder and I’d been lobbying for him win an Oscar ever since. 16 years later (oddly enough, the same length of time between his first Oscars as a nominee and his 2nd nominated role), it finally happened.
From now on, when they show movie trailers of him, his name will be preceded by “academy award winner.”
I’m still in disbelief, honestly. As much as I wanted this, I didn’t want to give myself permission to get excited until his name was called. The fact Robert DeNiro was also nominated made me listen extra closely to make sure I heard correctly he actually won.
And his speech was pretty much everything I expected, but I’m sure all the victories preceding this one helped him prepare for it.

I’d go on some more but I have a more substantial post in mind. Something I didn’t want to post until I knew for sure he’d won. The last thing I wanted to do was jinx this.
I’ll just add a little retrospective on his history with this awards show.
He lost for “Chaplin” because Al Pacino had been passed over a few times before he finally won. Would winning an Oscar at the age of 26 have changed the way his life went during the 90s? There’s a good chance it wouldn’t have made a difference. If anything, him winning might have been the worst thing that happened to him. Showering praise on the young and inexperienced in show business tends to have some adverse effects.
Then his Tropic Thunder performance lost to Heath Ledger. Part of me will always believe the only reason he won or was even nominated was because he died in the middle of filmmaking. But considering the Tropic Thunder role and the controversy surrounding it, him getting passed over then also makes sense. Plus he was still winning back the masses after his personal life had gotten in the way of his professional life for so long.
Now, he’s finally the DiCaprio and Pacino nominee. He finally earned his due. And hearing how this year’s vote had a higher than normal turnout, part of me wonders if it’s because that many people wanted him to win as much as I did.

Also, Jimmy Kimmel said how 20 years ago, his most recent role was Tim Allen’s antagonist in the shaggy dog remake. I completely forgot about that movie, haha.
But he was also off by a couple years. In 2004, Robert’s movie that year was Gothika. The movie where he said his fondest memory (other than playing the doctor on the opposite side of the table) was “romancing the producer.” In his speech he said how he was the rescue pup she’d helped out of the gutter. It’s a bit more complicated but she deserves all the credit in the world for why he’s here. And on set, Team Downey is as good as a team as they are on the home front.

Yes, you read correctly. This is the short version of my victory lap over this news. More to come later this week.

Did the headlines hype the wrong rivalry?


Since last summer, many journalists were saying the same thing. Barbie and Oppenheimer were going to take all the awards. And when the nominations were announced, things seemed to be looking that way. But to echo what everyone else had said, there were two people conspicuously absent. Margot Robbie for best actress and Greta Gerwig for best director. Both of whom absolutely deserved to be there and I can’t imagine why, except to clear the way for the people they really wanted to win.

Of their 13 nominations, Oppenheimer took home half. I didn’t expect them to take all of them but I was admittedly concerned when we were an hour in and they hadn’t won anything. Then Robert won his and karma was coming back in their favor.

It seems like every Oscars, there’s one movie that has me caught between annoyance and concern because I hadn’t seen or heard of it and it wins a lot of awards. Last year it was the foreign film “on the western front”. This year it was “Poor Things.” Considering it was nominated for 12 awards, none of its wins were super surprising. But the fact it stole a bunch of the awards I’d picked Barbie to win, I was very much concerned.
So I have to say this- there was so much hype about the Barbieheimer rivalry. But really, Poor Things was the movie Barbie really should’ve been worried about.
Poor Things was also the only one of the nominated movies that was being regularly played in theaters nearby. The two aforementioned movies were already on dvd and/or HBO. But some of the others (The Holdovers I was very interested in seeing), only played locally 2-3 times and they were at inconvenient time slots. And I wasn’t going to subscribe to Peacock or buy a dvd we were most likely only going to watch once.

And yeah, I guess if Poor Things ever comes to TV, I’m gonna have to watch it now.
It looks like a bizarre cross between Tim Burton, Birdman and Wes Anderson (who won for a short film this year but wasn’t there to accept it in person). The kind of movie sure to stick with you- for better or worse and I hope it’s the former.

Barbie was a little bit of a letdown when I finally saw it but I’d be willing to give it another try. I didn’t like Ken’s story arc but Ryan Gosling’s performance was such a show stopper, it might be enough to bring me around. (It was so epic, I was like "dude, if this acting thing doesn't work out for you, this would be a good back up plan").
It was just sad after all that the movie only won one award. And in the Barbie vs Ken face off, Barbie prevailed. A well deserved second win for Billie Eilish.

The result of my Oscar ballot


I’ve only filled one of these out a couple of times but it might be a tradition I’ll continue going forward.
I got 13/23 wins correct, which is my average.

Barbie aside, it was kinda disappointing I didn’t get the lead acting categories correct. But I also couldn’t be too mad about either one. I honestly thought Lily Gladstone was nominated because she was going to win- Hollywood’s too-little-too-late way of making up for the Sacheen Littlefeather controversy. But I’d loved Emma stone since “Easy A” so any time she wins is a win for me.

After watching a Hollywood reporter round table on YouTube (featuring RDJ, Mark Ruffalo and three of the best actor contenders), I picked Jeffrey Wright to win for American Fiction. He received so much praise from the other actors and his role sounded interesting to me.  It’s one of those roles and movies that people had been clamoring for that shines a spotlight on other backgrounds.(I'd have to see it for myself but it's about a black writer who earns accolades for writing a novel that- quoting Wikipedia here- "mock[s] the literary clichés expected from Black writers." He'd written it out of spite and it winds up becoming an overnight success).
That being said, I can’t be mad at Cillian Murphy winning for Oppenheimer. He did that role so well.

And of course I’m thrilled Oppenheimer won best picture because I can actually say I’d seen it and agree that it was worthy.
Although the way Al Pacino handled the presenting of the award, I was a bit concerned it was going to be the LaLa Land debacle all over again.
No disrespect but the academy needs to do better selecting people to present this award because it’s the most important one. Between Al Pacino and Warren Beatty, the ball has been dropped a bit too much in recent years.

The supporting actress winner, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, set the tone for the rest of the show. She thanked her publicist for being instrumental in her success. So a bunch of people rode those coat tails. (Robert thanked his stylist as well as his agent who’d helped him a lot over the years, not just limited to helping him get insured to do movies when he wasn’t at his most reliable).


Jimmy Kimmel


Again he was a good host. Although a couple of his jokes fell flat for me. Two of which were political jokes. :sigh: Dude just can’t help himself and I hate that.
And the whole John Cena streaker joke… I’d seen the dude have no issue with nude scenes in a couple movies but doing it live is a different animal. No wonder the poor dude was uncomfortable.
And predictably, he got one little job at Matt Damon in there at the end.


Best Oscars in years?


I may be a little biased in this regard but it was a great show even without all the Oppenheimer victories.

And I think the biggest reason was the lack of grandstanding and soap box speeches. People won their trophies and thanked all the people that helped them get there. It’s the way it should be and hadn’t been for a while.
The only point that shifted away from this was Ukraine winning their first Oscar (Best Documentary) and the recipient speaking in support of his country. And also the snippet from Alexei Navalny, the Russian activist who’d died in prison (none of us believe the whole “death by natural causes” cover story) right before the "In Memoriam" segment. There were some complaints (including at least one person in our house) that you couldn’t read the names all that well. I saw enough of them that they left the intended impact. They showed Matthew Perry and his loss hit me as hard as it did when I first heard. It still doesn’t feel real. Having Andrea Bocelli there in person singing "Time to Say Goodbye" with his son, in Italian and English, also super touching.

Another cool thing was having 5 previous acting winners giving speeches for the nominees. You could really feel the love and admiration in the room.
And of course I didn’t expect anything less when Sam Rockwell delivered a few lines about RDJ with playful prodding. The most well known being “he doesn’t drop character until the DVD commentary.” Speaking from the 2-3 of his commentaries I’d sat through, it was just the one time. But I’d recommend the commentary for Tropic Thunder just the same.

Another neat thing about the awards this year. In addition to some of the international winners, several were from the UK and ended their acceptance speeches with wishes of “happy Mother’s Day.”
We have a wall calendar from the British Isles this year. It’s a bit strange having the week start with Monday. But sure enough, on March 10th it says “mothering Sunday”

This year, the show started a little after 7pm my time and ended around 10:30... there were some complaints about this, but honestly, I'd be all for this time slot going forward. Speaking as someone who has to get up early to work the next day.

Oscars 2017

I "live-blog" during figure skating all the time, so I figured... why not try to do that with the Oscars this year?
[I'm keeping the politics out of it- I started to but changed my mind... everyone else can worry about that]

So far for best dressed... I always gotta have a couple favorites...

Nicole Kidman- love how she's classic Hollywood elegance. Loved her being interviewed with Keith Urban and so gracious and supportive to one another. They're so cute together- I cannot stand it :P



And Emma Stone, omg, gorgeous! From the waist down, she looks like a chandelier and that's an absolute compliment.



And Viola Davis- such a gracious interviewee, amazing red dress. Being a three-time Oscar nominee (and loving her so much in "How to get away with murder"), I REALLY hope she wins this year.




As for picking the winners and such... I really haven't gone through the list and done that for myself... I just might pick who I want as the names are being read off.

I hope "La La Land" wins Best Picture because I went and saw the damn thing (loved that damn thing...). But something in my gut tells me "Moonlight" might pull out an upset. Reading briefly about it, it sounds like a powerful movie whose story deserves to be shared. I also want to see "Hidden Figures," "Fences" and "Lion" at one point.

Justin Timberlake opened the show with "Can't Stop the Feeling" in an AMAZING performance. I'm so sick of that song, but he made it fresh again. Got it off to a really positive joyous start.

Jimmy Kimmel gave a great monologue that teetered from hilarious to "oh god no" back to hilarious. They teetered on political a few times, I held my breath, the joke was usually in good taste, but managed to rein it back in each time.

Okay, Best Supporting Actor... I dunno who I pick to win this one...
I want Dev Petal, but it'll probably go to the guy from "Moonlight."
It's the guy from "Moonlight"- Mahershala Ali.
He looked like he was on the edge of getting emotional, so kudos to him for keeping it together and giving a nice solid speech.
I guess that's 1 for me.
I planned, before running out of time, to go through all the nominees on the Wikipedia page and do my picks. I found his name and clicked it. I'd previously seen him in "Mockingjay" as Katniss's boyguard.

Best Makeup and Costume is up next.
Kate McKinnon looks amazing as a presenter. With the right amount of her brand of awkward.
Best Makeup- Suicide Squad (cuz we just saw the movie :P... and we got it! we had a quick celebratory moment about that)- I love that these guys are European and I pick out their accents.
Best Costume Design- La La Land (just because... even though they weren't anything spectacular)... nope, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find"... Colleen Atwood- so great to see her win cuz she'd worked on a bunch of Tim Burton movies. Amazing designer. She'd been nominated a bunch of times, but I don't remember her winning before. (She had won three times- "Chicago," "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "Alice in Wonderland").

Best Documentary- presented by the tri-form of "Hidden Figures" actresses- and they actually have one of the actual Hidden Figures women on stage- wow!
Feature- OJ: Made in America (boo! I would've given it to "Life, Animated" or "I am Not Your Negro"... can we just stop talking about OJ and glorifying his story?)

Dwayne Johnson gave a great speech and segue way to the performance of the "Moana" song "How Far I'll Go"
Lin Manuel Miranda rapped his intro to it, really done well.
The actress who played Moana sung it so beautifully with some great visuals behind her. A golden sculpted sun and people waving large blue plumes to resemble waves. It was so sweeping and beautiful- I wanted the song to win instead of both of La La Land's songs :P never doubt a good Disney ballad, even if it's not "Let it Go."

Jimmy Kimmel just had this whole Ellen Oscar moment- but instead of ordering pizza, he just had all this candy rain from the ceiling- junior mints and red vines in parachutes ;)

Sound Editing- La La Land (wouldn't it be crazy if with all this hype it was ZERO...)...
Nope, Arrival... (I really hope this isn't "American Hustle" all over again- I picked it to win all its awards and it won ZERO of, I think, 8 nominations).
Sound Mixing- (trying this again) La La Land...nope, Hacksaw Ridge (good for them, I didn't think they'd win any).

Okay, so that's three awards La La Land hasn't won... is it too early to be concerned?

Great speech- Kevin O'Connell said his mom got his first job in sound and when asked how he could thank her, she said work hard and win an Oscar so you can thank me in first of 10 million people... that's me paraphrasing, of course.

Best Supporting Actress- oh yeah, I wanted Viola Davis to win this one... but my gut is saying Naomi Harris from "Moonlight"... looking at all the clips, I don't think you can go wrong with anyone here...
three times the charm, baby! :D
oh man, it was almost surreal to see her finally win and give this great speech. I almost got choked up a couple times because you knew she believed and breathed every word of it. Definitely have to see this movie now.

They had this cute bit where talking about the theme being inspiration- then they had a clip of Charlize Theoren watching "The Apartment" and saying how Shirley Maclaine inspired her with that performance. And the two of them presented the next award together and had some funny banter.

Best Foreign Language Film- Elle (because it won the Golden Globe... oh shoot, it's not even nominated... I guess The Salesman...)

They had Sting sing "Empty Room" which was from the James Foley story- a journalist that was beheaded by ISIS.
Best Short Animated Film- Piper (cuz it's the only one we've heard of)... I guess it being Pixar helped a lot :P when he went to thank people, I totally knew he'd say John Lassester first. One of the biggest people at Disney and Pixar films (also the world's biggest Miyazaki fanboy).

Best Animated Film- I wish it was "Kubo & The Two Strings" but it most likely will be Moana... just because Disney always seems to win. [and of course one of the presenters had to speak out against the wall... damn it...]
Zootopia (boo! we didn't see that one...)

Production Design- LA LA LAND... please! finally won one! Geesh... what a pain...
nice quick speech

a bunch of tourists on a tour bus were brought into the Oscars as a surprise and they'd been leading up to it for the past half hour. They just walked in and they're filming it on their phones, lol
I think Denzel just married a couple, lol and one of them got Jennifer Aniston's sunglasses. Too many great moments to list all of them right now :P And Guillermo is there to usher them through. Definitely going to remember this for years to come.

Visual Effects- tough call between two... or three... oh man, I don't know... Jungle Book... gotta see that one... I thought it'd be Doctor Strange, but then I saw Jungle Book listed and it was kinda hard to say no after that.

Best Film Editing- uhh... La La Land?... I dunno... this is a hard category to call...
wow, two for Hacksaw Ridge... I'm really happy for them, then, getting the acknowledgement for their efforts. And this makes Mel Gibson look even better for Best Director.

They had a cool "inspiration" bit before that with Seth Rogen watching "Back to the Future" and talking about how Michael J. Fox inspired people to skateboard off the backs of cars. Then the two of them came out of a DeLorean on the stage.

Jimmy Kimmel is looking really good as an Oscar host. He had another great moment- this time with the kid from "Lion"- did a quick Q&A with him and they reenacted the "Lion King" moment in the opening of the movie and Mike & Ike parachuted from the ceiling.

They had a Google commercial with the story "Lion" was based on... and it was amazing... almost got teary-eyed on it.

Documentary Short Subject- (I blanked out... I had no idea which one to pick)... The White Helmets... Wikipedia says it's about volunteers helping the civilians in Syria...
Live-Action Short Film- uh... Sing, because it's about music? I dunno... I got that win by luck. According to Wikipedia, it's a Hungarian film that's the "story of a girl who moves to a new elementary school and becomes a member of the award-winning school choir."

Short Films and Documentaries are always so hard for me to pick winners for.

Yikes... there's still 9 awards left to give out and it's almost 11. Bleck... this is gonna be over at midnight, isn't it? I get up at 5:30am for work- this isn't good for me...
On the plus side, the mood of the night overall has alleviated. It kinda picked up after La La Land won its only award of the night so far.

Best Cinematography- La La Land... I'm gonna keep saying it all night, I swear...
okay, that's two so far for this movie... its cinematography really was amazing- the whole glitz and glam and heart of it. I didn't expect it to sweep, but it seems like it's getting the awards it really deserves.

Time for their Mean Tweets segment... hopefully this isn't too bad...
Oh, actually those were pretty great... some were really mean, like the Emma Stone one... but some like the Miles Teller one were great, he even acknowledged that...

John Legend sung the two songs nominated for "La La Land" with Mandy Moore choreography around him... and there was a couple floating in the air like Ryan and Emma did in the movie...
I'm still mad at him for his character did to ruin the movie for me... if there's anything I'm good at, it's holding grudges against actors for what their characters do in movies... (ask James Spader)Best Original Score- La La Land.... seriously, it helped save the movie when we couldn't hear what anyone was saying in the film in that theater... great job, Justin Hurwitz! nice speech too- he summed everything up really well to save time ;)
Best Original Song- uh... I loved "Audition" but it'll probably be "City of Stars" for La La Land. [yeah, I'm getting the movie on DVD as soon as it comes out... and I'll probably watch it by myself dozens of times].
The speech of the last guy who thanked his mom for letting him quit the soccer team to be in the school movie... that's just great

"a musical Prince leading The Revolution on stage"- what Jennifer Aniston said as part of her summation of the In Memoriam section intro. And she got a quick mention of Bill Paxton.
They mentioned Anton Yelchin and Gene Wilder and Prince was maybe just before the halfway point. They showed the scene where he says "I'd like to dedicate this to my father"... by the end of it, where they had Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds... and the lights went dark... I finally started tearing up.

When I go back to Purple Rain in a month or so, I'll probably do a post here and on my regular blog (same exact post) to touch on what it's like to watch that movie again for the first time since he died. It's going to be hard.
For the most part, I trick my mind into believing he's still alive by listening to his music (where he's very much alive). But there are times like these it's hard to keep those walls up.

Anyway... Jimmy Kimmel is watching "We Bought a Zoo" with Matt Damon and making all kinds of comments said so seriously, but he means them as a joke.

He let Matt Damon on the stage to give the award for screenplay, but called him guest in the voiceover. He's being played off whenever he's talking in the presenting alongside Ben Affleck. Cuz Jimmy Kimmel is leading the orchestra.

Best Original Screenplay- La La Land... [my dad's laughing at "The Lobster" like he did "My Life as a Zucchini"]... nope, it's "Manchester By The Sea"... that's good for them- they finally got one. I heard the movie's depressing, but also well done.
Best Adapted Screenplay- Fences (but this is another TOUGH category- Hidden Figures or Moonlight could win)... okay, another for "Moonlight"- great job, guys.

Parachutes with cookies and donuts just came down :P and Taraji B. Henson was freaking out (cuz she gave away cookies at the Golden Globes the year she won for "Empire")

Okay, now down to the final big awards... phew...

Here are my guesses:

Best Actress- Emma Stone
Best Actor- Denzel (but right now my gut says Casey Affleck)
Best Director- Damien Chazelle (or it could be Mel Gibson, who knows at this point?)
Best Movie- La La Land (but my gut says Moonlight has a really good shot)

Just end this as soon as you can, guys... I have to get up for work in less than 6 hours.

Everyone kept saying how great Damian was, so I had to go with him (but wouldn't be surprised if Mel Gibson won at all). The youngest ever director to win an Oscar- he was born in 1985, a year older than me. I'm amazed he was so composed about it.

I just had this gut feeling about Casey Affleck- the way they were talking about how good he was... and he gave a good speech as any dumbfounded winner could... but it makes him human, which is a great. I just wish he didn't have to look so scruffy because he's busy filming another movie... or doing a play or something.

OMG- I'm almost crying right now :P I never thought this would happen for her and it did.
A really great speech- she kept it together so well.
Wow, I just can't believe I'd been following her since "Easy A"- maybe not seeing all of her movies, but a bunch of them. And it's led to this point. And I really hope that she continues to get great roles and do well- because not all best actress Oscar winners rebound from that high.
Bonnie and Clyde- Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty are presenting the final award... amazing, that they're still alive 50 years after the movie was done... and they actually look good for whatever ages they are.
(Sorry, so many people have died in Hollywood over the past year... it's hard to keep track of who's still alive anymore, especially among the older members).

So far I have 13 correct guesses... can we make it 14? I think my best grand total was 13 correct guesses... I'll have to double-check...
14!!

Yeah- I've seen and picked three Oscar-winning movies over the past... I dunno... 4-5 years...
La La Land- I think this was their 7th win...
omg, yeah!!! I'm tired, good-night
I'll finish editing in the morning

***

I am SO GLAD I didn't post this last night because this would've been super awkward.
And it's also good that I had all day to let this process in my mind so I could come up with a tactful response.

"La La Land" didn't win best picture... "Moonlight" did... for whatever reason, the presenters were given the wrong card and read off the wrong name.
Halfway through the acceptance speech, the producers came on stage and tell them the truth. It was all kinds of awkward... I thought for sure that one of the guys from "La La Land" had a guilty conscience about winning and said that "Moonlight" deserved it more.

Now- I'll be clear about something- I had a gut feeling after hearing about the Spirit Awards that "Moonlight" might sneak in with a surprise win. And I expressed earlier in this post that I'd be interested in seeing the movie just to see what all the hype is about.

I don't mind that it won- but they should have gotten it right the first time. Not before I celebrated and so many other people did...

Seriously... if the Oscars can't get THIS right... I mean, the whole sanctity of this prestigious awards show is GONE.

People will go on about how this is karma for Hollywood for interfering so much with the election and such.
And several others boycotted because of the Meryl Streep and so many other things.

Truth be told, apart from the "statement" from the Iranian director "The Salesman" (that was a part of the show that really brought it down for me), it was actually done well without too many major political soapbox statements. There wasn't another Meryl Streep moment anyway.

As a host, Jimmy Kimmel was great. I was afraid the whole thing would get overly political and it really didn't. If it did, it was done with a sense of humor and most of the jokes were done with tact. Or the next joke brought the show back up again. And I could appreciate that.
My hope is that he doesn't take this whole Best Picture debacle too hard because up until that point, he was great.
That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

Congratulations "Moonlight"- hopefully I'll see you in the future on HBO or Showtime.

And I got 13 correct guesses on winners-- my record was 14 back in 2014 (hmm... go figure, right?)

Theatrical Review: La La Land

Date: Saturday January 28 2016
Time: 1:10pm
Party: 3 (my mom, sister and I)

Writer/Director: Damian Chazelle (of "Whiplash" fame... I still don't want to see that movie)
Composer: Justin Hurwitz (also of "Whiplash" fame- you know how directors like to work with the same composers a lot of the time)

Duration: 2 hours and 8 minutes (+3 trailers)

Cast:
Sebastian- Ryan Gosling
Mia- Emma Stone
Keith- John Legend
JK Simmons

Awards and Nominations [as of January 28th]:
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best picture (comedy/musical)
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best comedy/musical actor- Ryan Gosling (still think it should've been Ryan Reynolds- but it was one of the best moments of a kinda unpleasant Golden Globes... Meryl Streep's speech pretty much ruined it]
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best comedy/musical actress- Emma Stone
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best Director- Damian Chazelle
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best Screenplay- Damian Chazelle
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best Original Score- Justin Hurwitz
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best Original Song-
nomination-OSCAR- Best Picture
nomination-OSCAR- Best Actor- Ryan Gosling
nomination-OSCAR- Best Actress- Emma Stone
nomination-OSCAR- Best Director- Damian Chazelle
nomination-OSCAR- Best Cinematography
nomination-OSCAR- Best Costume
nomination-OSCAR- Best Film Editing
nominations-OSCAR- Best Song- "City of Stars" and "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)"
nomination-OSCAR- Best Production Design (used to be called "Art Direction")
nomination-OSCAR- Best Sound Editing
nomination-OSCAR- Best Sound Mixing
nomination-OSCAR- Best Original Screenplay- Damian Chazelle
nomination-OSCAR- Best Original Score- Justin Hurwitz


Write-up:

Introduction

It's been a LONG time since we've gone to the movies to see an award nominated film upon knowing it was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. The last time was when "Les Miz" came out. Once I got lucky and saw "The King's Speech" and "The Artist" and both of them won Best Picture. Both were at the downtown community theater and both happened to be Weinstein Company films. ("The King's Speech"- we saw the day OF the Oscars. But after seeing "The Social Network," I kinda wished Jesse Eisenberg and "The Social Network" won Oscars instead of "The King's Speech" and Colin Firth... just so the Oscars can go non-traditional for a change).

Anyway... "La La Land" swept all the Golden Globes they were nominated for. Best Actor and Actress, Best Director, Screenplay, Score, Original Song, and of course, "Best Comedy/Musical"... one much more worthy of the category than "The Martian"... yeah, we're not letting that one go anytime soon :P I will have to review that at some point because I did enjoy that one a lot.

Trailers

I found it kinda interesting that all three trailers were for female-forward movies.
The first was "Certain Women" starring Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart. An IFC film that is running the festival circuit. I don't really know what to make of what it's about.
Next- "Julieta"- which was foreign language, maybe French or Greek. I couldn't tell, but it looked like it was about a same sex female couple. Why that garnered an R rating, it's hard to tell from the trailer. But the context seemed weird... almost like it was a mother falling in love with her daughter.
Then there was this Amazon series "Love & Friendship" based on the Jane Austen novel. It looks like something I'd like to watch if it ever came out on DVD. (We don't do Netlfix, Amazon or streaming in our house... except the occasional YouTube and Hulu).

The Main Event

We get to know our two stars pretty well early on in the movie.
We learn that Mia (Emma Stone) is a struggling actress trying to make it into the business  and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is trying to break through in his own business-- jazz music.

The two of them meet in a rocky place (a traffic jam of all things... neither of them are in that opening dance number at all for whatever reason), bump into each other randomly a couple other times, and somehow they get together.
Then things start to happen in their careers, more ups and downs, their relationship is tested... we have our typical Hollywood romance with all the trimmings and some musical numbers thrown in to keep up the heart rate.

Characters and Actors

This is the third time these two have been cast together in a movie and were romantically involved. It's great for the actors, of course, to go in knowing each other this well, so they don't need to work on their chemistry too much. Although at first, I didn't really feel that chemistry. I didn't buy into them as a couple. Maybe because he was a little unlikeable at first. But when they had their stumbles, I just wanted so badly for them to stay together.

I'm still teary-eyed thinking about it, but that's not the only reason why I was a complete mess when the movie ended.

I really hadn't seen much of Ryan Gosling. I think he was in "The Big Short" (which I kinda don't remember much of because it was so damn hard to follow). I saw "The Notebook" just like everyone else (but it was such a tearjerker that it was hard to forget what he and Rachel McAdams brought to the movie). And I saw him with Emma Stone in "Crazy, Stupid, Love." I liked him a lot in that movie (but the movie went downhill when the truth came out... that Steve Carell is her dad and suddenly he's not jazzed about them as a couple).

Yikes... I guess I have a problem with a lot of Ryan Gosling movies, but it's not entirely his fault. It's just how they're written.
Sebastian is an interesting character for him, something a little different. I read an article about he's one of those characters who are so into music and their playing and composing that the rest of their life kinda suffers because it's life vs. art and choosing one over the other. He had some comments on jazz that had me thinking about the genre like I never had before. I mean, Prince did some great jazz and "The Rainbow Children" has some great jazz aspects to it, but the overall message of the lyrics gets in the way of that.

All Mia had to go by at this point with jazz music is Kenny G and elevator music. But Sebastian takes her to a club with some really good jazz musicians and shows her how it's supposed to sound.
It's also a little ironic, considering the way his career eventually does take off.

Mia is the girl that all of us can relate to. She wants so badly to make her dream a reality, but keeps hitting all these stumbles. Lots of auditions that just don't go anywhere. Then she's caught in this whirlwind romance with Sebastian, who she leaves her current boyfriend for (why they had to write she was already in a relationship really made no sense).
Of course, Emma Stone I've loved since "Easy A" and this is another shining moment for her. Particularly her final audition where she sings "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)."

Music and Sound

From the get-go, I knew I was going to be excited about this movie. The opening traffic dance scene was parodied on the opening of the "Golden Globes" (that nobody liked for whatever reason... we all thought it was great). I think anyone who's been stuck in traffic in LA wished that something like that happened if only as a way to pass the time.

The music was so great and there were so many great songs. I almost want to run out and buy the soundtrack.
Another bit of irony: the music sorta helped make up for a technical issue we kept having.

I don't know what was going on with our particular theater that day, but the sound kept having problems. The volume on the voices was quiet and, even worse, muddled. We were in a theater with maybe half a dozen other people (all older than the age of 50) and they took turns going to the concession stand to get someone to fix the sound.
After a while, it just got exhausting to mentally try to stay engaged in the movie and keep track of what was going on. Again, it's lucky that there was a lot of music, so there was less dialogue, but that excuse could only go on for so long.

For the record, the sound started out muddled in the trailers and we had to get it fixed at least 4 times.

Maybe that's why I didn't like "City of Stars" so much. It was hard to hear it, but compared to some of the other numbers, it didn't get me particularly excited. Maybe I was too busy thinking about how unfair it is that this movie got two songs nominated for Oscars. Obviously, they can't both win.

Additional Comments and Spoilers
Yeah, what really got me was that the movie just had a sad ending....

All the movies do this where things are so great for a couple in a romance, but then it all falls apart and the rest of the movie kinda does. Emma Stone helped me get me through it because I wanted to see how her character fared and how her one-woman show (that her relationship with Sebastian inspired her to write-- since it was something she used to do as a kid).

Why is it that people who both are in the entertainment business never stay together? That seems true in real life as well. Nearly every notable Hollywood couple has broken up after long marriages (Robert Downey Jr.'s seems the safest in this aspect because his wife isn't an actress, she's a movie producer and a damn good one).

Anyway... I think I'm going to be mad at John Legend for a while because it was his fault that our protagonists broke up.
Granted, Mia pushed Sebastian to consider the proposal from Keith (his character's name) to join his jazz band. But then they have some stupid fight about it. He's going on tour with them and he misconstrues her comments. She asks if this is something he really wants because the music isn't exactly the kind he introduced her two. He thinks she's saying that she was happier when he was struggling like her because it made her feel better about herself.

We see one performance of it and she seems taken aback by it. It starts out kinda cool and such, but then it just gets way too big and flashy. It teeters more towards R&B than jazz and Sebastian seems like he's in the background more than being part of this team. (At least when he was part of an 80's cover band-- not a bad one by any means-- he could walk away after a couple gigs with no problem).

I would have preferred to see Mia's one-woman show performance than that. We never get to see it, which I was disappointed about. I didn't even know what it was about.

Back to the positive... Mandy Moore did some really great choreography for this movie and I loved the fantasy aspect of it.

A couple of cool little parts: Emma goes by a mural on the jazz club where she sees Sebastian perform for the first time. On it, it had a bunch of old Hollywood stars sitting in theater. Among them, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. And there are a few nice references to "Rebel without a Cause" including the movie itself and the two stars going to the actual planetarium from the movie.

I think I'll be getting this movie on DVD as soon as it comes out. Possibly the soundtrack as well. And I'm going to watch it a bunch of times.
Either way, it'll be nice to be able to hear the entire movie without interruption.

How Many Oscars?

I don't see them running away with every award, not counting the whole bit about them having two songs nominated.
The film editing had a few rough patches for me that I didn't like. They show place cards saying the names of the season we're in, but they came about abruptly some of them.

I want badly for Emma Stone to win Best Actress, but considering who she's up again (Meryl Streep doesn't always win... but maybe with her Golden Globes speech they might give her another trophy so she'll have another soapbox moment none of us in my house want to hear again), it's not likely.
Ryan Gosling isn't a shoe-in for best actor either. I see Casey Affleck as a more likely candidate and Denzel, you can never count out.

So I think they'll get at least 10. Take away the acting categories, one song and probably costume (they were nothing out of the ordinary, I don't think).
I want it to win Best Picture simply because I saw it. I go to a movie that's nominated, of course I want it to win. But I wanted to see this even before all the accolades came out. I just heard whispers about it being a great tribute to old Hollywood musicals with a modern twist.

Grade: A
(despite what Saturday Night Live said, the movie was kinda slow in the middle and the ending... even then, I don't think I'd give this a perfect A+).

Odd Side-Note

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R4T0Nc4jig

It's hard for me to hear "La La Land" without thinking about this song by Jax from "American Idol." Her finishing third was one of the most crushing moments I experienced on the show. She'd gone through so much since then, including a bout with thyroid cancer, but she's doing much better now. She also released an EP that I should at least listen to on iTunes.

Post-Oscars 2016

I started writing this entry a couple days earlier so I could write down [for my own recollection] who I pick to win all the categories.
I think last year, I only got 7 winners right of the ones I picked beforehand (a couple documentaries, I picked when I heard the nominees, so it wouldn't be fair to count them).

The ones in bold are the one I got correct... or the winners were mentioned elsewhere in my blurbs.

Predictions

Best Picture- The Martian
Best Actor- Leonardo DiCaprio [Right now my gut is saying Matt Damon... but it's hard to ignore the buzz around Leo... the next time RDJ is nominated for an Oscar, he better get this same buzz]
Best Actress- Jennifer Lawrence [It's hard not to go with the J-Law/David O. Russell combo, although Brie Larson and Cate Blanchett have just as good a chance to win]
Best Supporting Actor- Sylvester Stallone [my gut says Mark Ruffalo but "Spotlight" has all but been ignored this awards season]
Best Supporting Actress- Kate Winslet [I'd love Rachel McAdams, but I just don't see it happening, see above]
Best Animated Film- Inside Out
Best Cinematography- The Revenant
Best Costume Design- The Danish Girl [it's hard to pick- none of the costumes stand out to me]
Best Director- Alejandro Inarritu for "The Revenant"
Best [Full] Documentary- Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom [I'd like "Amy" to win because I heard it was really good... but I have a feeling about this one. Isn't it time to lift the sanctions on Russia over Ukraine? It's not worth sinking the world's economy over that]
Best [Short] Documentary- Last Day of Freedom
Film Editing- Mad Max: Fury Road
Foreign Language Film- Son of Saul
Best Makeup/Hairstyling- Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Original Score- Bridges of Spies [Can't go wrong with John Williams]
Best Original Song- " 'Till It happens to you"- Lady Gaga [I like "Earned It" but this song from "The Hunting Ground" NEEDS to win... if not to make up for the fact it wasn't nominated for best documentary, then for everything it stands for- stopping victim-blaming in sexual assault cases]
Production Design- The Revenant
Short Animated Film- World of Tomorrow
Short Live-Action Film- Ave Maria [hard not to go with that name]
Best Sound Editing- Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Sound Mixing- Star Wars VII
Best Visual Effects: Ex Machina
Best Original Screenplay- Ex Machina ["Straight Outta Compton" is probably going to win just because on the whole race issue that's been plaguing the Oscars]
Best Adapted Screenplay- Room


Red Carpet
Going through my previous two "post-Oscars" entries, I noticed that Anna Kendrick was my "best dressed" both times.
This year, she wasn't anywhere near the red carpet (and for the second year in a row, Robert Downey Jr. was nowhere to be seen... but really, the one thing I have any concern about with him is when HE gets that campaign for an Oscar that Leo had... please don't make him wait until he's Charlie Chaplin's age or, even worse, don't do him like Omar Sharif  [RIP] and neglect to give him an Oscar at all).

Anyway, my new pick for "Best Dressed":




Best actress nominee ["Brooklyn"] Saoirse Ronan

Also it was cool to hear her natural Irish brogue. I'd seen her in "Hanna," "The Lovely Bones" and "The Host" (which I hope I'll be able to find somewhere for five bucks).
And hopefully now everyone will know her name is pronounced "Sir-sha."
I didn't know until Stephen Colbert had her on the late show.
I was half hoping she would win the Oscar this year, but Brie Larson definitely deserved it too.


another of my "best dressed" of the night


But I have one honorable mention:




Kevin Hart had shiny embroidery on his tux. The perfect compliment to his shining personality.
He gave maybe the funniest opening monologue I've seen on SNL. I'd only been watching over the past couple years, but I almost didn't stop laughing the entire time.
Which reminds me... I gotta get around to seeing some of his movies. "The Wedding Ringer" was named one of the worst movies of 2014, but I still wanna see it. And of course "Ride Along" because I almost went out and saw the sequel.
Another side-note: I'd love to see him host the Oscars at some point too.

Rating Oscar Host Chris Rock

Speaking of SNL, Chris Rock recently hosted a show where Prince was the musical guest. I like both these guys a lot (Prince especially) and both disappointed me. Chris Rock told a joke involving 9/11 that went way too far for me and his monologue never recovered. I believe Prince performed a PlectrumElectrum track "Marz" with his band 3rd Eye Girl, but beyond that, it didn't live up to the hype. [Then again when he performed "Fury" while there in 2007, I had a million nitpicks about that too...]

With the exception of one joke (one of my cousins is a cop, so for me one joke went too far) and one segment (man on the street interviewing random people in front of a movie theater), Chris Rock was a great host.
He hosted the first Oscars I ever watched back in 2005 and he was great then as well.

Of course everyone who wasn't boycotting the Oscars was eager to see how he would address the lack of nominee diversity issue. It got tiresome a couple hours later, most running jokes often do. But his "sorority racist" comment, I thought, was spot-on and kinda clever.
My favorite sketch poking full at the issue was where we saw Whoopi Goldberg, Leslie Jones and Kevin Hart injected into movie scenes. I'm guessing Chris Rock stole that from Ellen because she ruined what was meant to be a serious scene from "Breaking Dawn." (Admittedly, her "50 shades" parody made up for that).
Best part was Leslie Jones (probably my last SNL reference in this entry, lol) being the bear from "The Revenant." If that scene was actually part of the movie, I might have watched it. Cannot wait to see her as part of the new "Ghostbusters" reboot-- freaking hilarious!!

Chris Rock did one other thing that Ellen did... and topped her.
She invited a pizza guy from a little local pizzeria and got pizzas for people.
Chris Rock brought Girl Scout Cookies and made more than $65,000 for his daughters' girl scout troop. Pizza's great, but you can't beat those cookies :P

Also loved when he had three Asian kids come out with the briefcases.

Other Cameos
My sister reminded me to mention the non-human characters that had cameos at this year's Oscars.
For starters, the droids from the latest Star Wars movie- C3PO, R2D2 and BB-8.
So cute seeing Jacob Tremblay standing on his chair in the audience to get a look at them. He mentioned being starstruck by them on the red carpet. It was mentioned that John Williams was for up for his 50th nomination and only won 5 times.
(I know in my predictions, I mentioned "can't go wrong with John Williams," but I incorrectly attributed him to scoring "Bridge of Spies"- that was Thomas Newman. John Williams scored Stars Wars- other than the two droids, the only other person involved in every Star Wars movie, which is kinda cool).

Then we had the Minions read the nominees for best animated short.
Johnny Weir tweeted shortly after "I don't understand...what are minions?"
A fanblogger of his RTed someone saying something to the effect that if Johnny doesn't get it, then it shouldn't be important.
I beg to differ... sure, "Minions" wasn't a perfect movie by any means, but I still love those characters. Their appearance was just Kevin having issues with the mic stand and Bob wound up reading the envelope after all the ruckus.

Lastly, Buzz and Woody from "Toy Story" were having a little back and forth as they always do, making fun of each other, and read the nominees for Best Animated Film.
Which of course was "Inside Out"- one of the best movies of the year [that I'm starting to regret not going out to see in theaters] and they're both Pixar films.

Performances

Unlike previous years, we "only had time" for three performers for the "Best Original Song" category. My favorite blogger, Lyndsey Parker, expressed a little annoyance at this because two lesser known artists were excluded. [And also noted that Duran Duran and John Parr were snubbed for "A View To a Kill" and "Man in Emotion (St Elmo's Fire)" collectively]. Anohini would have sang "Manta Ray," which was from the documentary Racing Extinction- showed a lot of undersea creatures including those big-ass Manta Rays. Their size boggles my mind!
"Simple Song #3" was from YOUTH- never heard of it, so for me, it wasn't a huge loss.

In retrospect, it's too bad we couldn't give awards based solely on how well they were performed...
I don't know how long it's been since Sam Smith sang publicly or how long ago his vocal cord surgery was, but he sounded a little off. I'm not sure why. It's a shame because he really does have an amazing voice. [I recently bought his album too-- I went from being a non-believer to a fan because of "Not The Only One"].
The Weeknd performed "Earned It" inside a ring of candles surrounded by scantily barely clad women, one of which was hanging from the ceiling. The only missing for me was his falsetto in the bridge leading to the chorus-- that's the vocal range that gets me every time I hear this song. [Listened to his album for the first time today-- lots of great slow jams and baby-making music, but some tracks ran too long and I paid a bit for neglecting to notice the Parental Advisory sticker... smooth silky voice or not, the some of the language in 2-3 tracks wasn't tasteful towards women].

At the end of it all, Lady Gaga gave one of the most powerful Oscar performances ever. Her "Sound of Music" tribute last year was amazing, yes, but this... Isn't there a Grammy category for a live performance? Because this would win hands down.
She did " "Till It happens to you" stripped down at the piano and at the end, all these rape and sexual survivors came out and stood hand in hand. On their arms, there were varying messages written.

So when they read of Sam Smith's name, I flipped out... everyone [except my friend Drew] was picked Gaga to win this. Everything was set up that way. Instead, they went with a James Bond theme that people were tweeting wasn't all that great. (I'll have to hear the recorded version to be sure of my feelings).
But when Sam gave his speech, whatever angry/sadness I felt evaporated. It was lucky he co-wrote with someone or he wouldn't be able to stay on his feet :P And it's a great win for the LGBT community. I had a feeling it'd be the first time an openly gay artist won this award.

Also, Dave Grohl performing "Blackbird" during the In Memoriam section- he's with the Foo Fighters and rocks hard a lot, so it was kinda cool he's capable of doing the exact opposite.
[According to IMDB, they forgot Abe Vigoda... they always forget someone... I could point out the fact they didn't mention Vanity/Denise Matthews, even though she only did B-movies...]

Winners and Losers

So, for starters, I guess I can thank "Mad Max: Fury Road" for giving me the first couple correct guesses that night.
We usually give out Best Supporting Actor first, but this time we started with the writing categories.
"The Big Short" won for Adaptation and "Spotlight" for Original... both movies were ones I didn't think would win anything because they got nothing at the Golden Globes.

Considering I only got 7 winners right last year and 9 this year, I should probably listen more to the other awards shows and less to the Golden Globes and my sentimentality... that's usually where I make the most mistakes.

Should I also accept the fact that Jennifer Lawrence is probably going to NEVER WIN another Oscar? I've picked her every time since "Silver Linings Playbook" and I've been wrong. And I REALLY hate being wrong.
Brie Larson definitely deserved it, though. No denying that. One thing about "Room" that gets on my nerves a tiny bit-- the kid is so loud in the one scene they showed. Isn't she trying to keep his existence a secret? I'm on edge that any second, her captor is going to break into the room and attack her/them. If opportunity knocks, I will see "Room"-- even though it'll probably be hard to watch.

Anyway, "Mad Max" won at least 6... and throughout the night, my mom kept saying "I really hope it doesn't win Best Picture."
I wanted to see it on HBO after all the hype, which I thought was ridiculous. As it turns out, it was nominated for Best Picture because it's supposed to be a metaphor/allegory of what our future could potentially become. The first half hour was really hard to get through-- really grotesque visuals. But after that, I did kinda enjoy it and some of the hype was warranted. So long as you don't associate it with the original "Mad Max" series with Mel Gibson. That was the one thing my mom couldn't get over. I never saw the original, so I wouldn't know. The movie kinda reminded me something out of a graphic novel.

One surprise was Sylvester Stallone not winning for Best Supporting Actor when literally everyone said he would. All the critics kept saying how great "Creed" was, but it neglected to win the one award it was nominated for.
Likewise, "Bridge of Spies" only got a handful of nominations, but only won this won for supporting actor. Mark Rylance.

Another great surprise- Mad Max not sweeping all the technical awards.
"Ex Machina" got a lot of rave reviews, but it was released so early last year that it was unlikely to get any nominations for Oscar Isaac or for Best Picture. But I'm glad that it won for Best Visual Effects.

Alicia Vikander really should have been nominated for "Ex Machina" and won. Her role in "The Danish Girl" doesn't seem like one that demanded the same recognition.
But I also hadn't seen the movie yet. For all I know, her role could have been as integral to the movie's success as Felicity Jones's in "The Theory of Everything." [Patricia Arquette was great in "Boyhood" but Felicity Jones was even better in her movie].

The running joke on Twitter was people asking if everyone was watching just to see if Leo won for best actor.
When Julianne Moore started going over all the roles and reading the names, I was starting to think anyone could win.
But then when the envelope opened, anticipation built up inside me where it was hard to even breathe.

Even she read the name with an almost "well, of course" type of attitude... everyone was expecting it. But I was still pinching myself afterwards to be sure that it was




I'm sorry, I kept thinking about this after he won :P

I guess that's the excuse I need to finally rewatch "Titanic"... I was starting to consider maybe giving it another shot now that I'm old enough to appreciate the movie.
I mean, it's a long-ass movie and the ending is going to kill me all over again, but I would like to at least do a blog post about it.

It's not every day I review a Leonardo DiCaprio film. He does a lot of movies like "The Revenant" (still can't spell it without spellcheck) that either don't interest me or look really hard to watch because it's very dramatic and such.
While he's still got his good looks, he really should do more roles that put it to an advantage.

Again my one nit-pick with him is that his speech ran too long and went too far on a tangent about climate change.
It's an issue, yes, but there are bigger issues...
Many of which we didn't really get to hear during the night because the exit music kept drowning people out. Kat Dennings tweeted her annoyance at this when Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was talking about her Oscar-winning short documentary about honor killings and got played off mid-sentence.
It was also great to see Joe Biden introduce Gaga and support her cause and that of "The Hunting Ground."
Hopefully the fact she didn't win the Oscar doesn't nullify this momentum and more gets done. [For starters, #FreeKesha].

Then we finally had Best Picture-- which kinda felt like a formality after Leo won :P
Morgan Freeman introduced all the nominees and it felt like he read the winner rather quickly.

And to me, it was a huge surprise that it went to SPOTLIGHT.

The Golden Globes all but ignored it. Maybe the Hollywood Foreign Press didn't like the "Press" this movie was about... who knows?

What I do know:

1) we didn't really want "Mad Max: Fury Road" to win-- despite the fact it was the only movie we saw of all this
2) I didn't really want "The Revenant" because it looks like a hard movie to get through
3) The Martian didn't win anything
4) "Spotlight" looks like a great movie and, more importantly, it looks like I'd be interested in seeing.

It's not like I intend to see ALL of the movies that've won Oscars over the years, but I'd like to see as many of them as possible. So long as there's something in it for me.
The cast alone is reason enough to see "Spotlight."

2016 Golden Globes

Despite the fact I am VERY out of my depth with the majority of the nominations, this was definitely a fun Golden Globes to watch.
To save myself some scrolling and a lot of trouble later, I muted a bunch of Twitter handles I follow that would be doing a play-by-play. Why bother if I'm watching the same thing?
However, that didn't stop me from checking with my friend Drew on Facebook and commenting/liking his play-by-play. Not sure how many winners he picked, but at the end, it's a good thing he didn't bet money :P
I wouldn't even bet money on the Oscars even if I was confident because my confidence isn't always rewarded :P

I knew for a lot of the TV awards that there'd be a lot of "who is that?" and "I never heard of this"... but after reading a couple articles, I was getting a vibe that were confirmed by trophies.
This didn't just happen in TV, by the way. But while on the subject, after that Amazon series "Mozart in the Jungle" won favorite TV comedy series, I had a feeling that the lead actor  Gael Garcia Bernal would win too.
Limited series/TV movie I wanted to give to "American Horror Story" simply cuz of Gaga's involvement- but it went to something from PBS called "Wolf Hall"... that was a real WTF moment for me because I had no idea what it was. I figured after last year that "Fargo" could repeat itself.

One thing a lot of people take away from this awards show is the fact everyone is trashed and super casual and of course there are memorable speeches because of this.
One we couldn't help laughing at was Rachel Bloom winning for "My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"... another series I don't watch, but you'd think she was in character the entire time she was speaking (assuming she is the crazy ex in the series). She was speaking a million miles an hour :P considering the time limit people have, it's great to see someone try to beat the clock.
She did not, but valiant effort.

Great to see Jon Hamm finally win for "Mad Men." I saw maybe one episode and I did not care for it. But I know that this was the last shot he had to win for it and a lot of people were gunning for it. The same thing happened for "Breaking Bad" a few Globes ago.

I said in my nominations entry (I also noticed that I'd rarely do a Globes nomination and awards entry the same year- usually I do one or the other) that I was super excited for two people to possibly win.
And both of them did.

Oscar Isaac, who was nominated previously for "Inside Llewyn Davis," won for the HBO mini-series "Show Me a Hero."
Just thinking back on it now, I'm still screaming and jumping for joy about it :D
Not just patting myself on the back for actually watching this series in its entirety, despite not being the most politically inclined/enthusiastic individual. But also because this is good exposure for him- a really talented actor not a lot of people know yet.
And he gave the best shortest speech where his biggest thanks came to the widow of the character he played. Never lose that humility, dude!
My friend Drew posted he didn't know who he is but said he was hot. I commented a couple sentences of his credits that I've seen ;) Gotta get the word out.

Then Lady Gaga winning for "American Horror Story: Hotel"... I didn't expect it, but also kinda did because "why nominate her if she's not a shoe-in?" First of all, she looked bombshell amazing. She was definitely throwing back to Marilyn Monroe with that look. And like a lot of first timers, she was blown-away and weak in the knees about it. Thanked pretty much everyone in her speech except for her fiancé Taylor Kinney :P

Viola Davis also looked amazing in her heavily sequined ball gown, but she didn't win
:( Taraji P. Henson did for "Empire." But the moment Cookie started handing out cookies, my disappointment was all but forgotten. Not to mention her speech was bad-ass and one of the most enjoyable of the night. As long as one of them won, it would be a good night.

Another surprise of the night, I thought, were the wins for "Mr. Robot." It's a USA series. I've heard of it, but know nothing about it other than Christian Slater being it. Since he's come to my attention, he'd been in 2-3 other series that didn't get past their first season. "Breaking In" I enjoyed a lot... and Fox ruined by recruiting Megan Mullaly to join the cast.
"Human Target" had the same issue when they introduced two female characters. It didn't ruin the series as bad, but it never picked up the old momentum. Did they do it for diversity? Even though I'm female myself, I didn't appreciate the add-in's just for the sake of diversity or pulling in more demographics... if there's a good chemistry with the original cast ["Human Target" had three main guys], that's something you just can't mess with... still a little sore about those series ending. "Human Target" especially. Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley) was one of the coolest TV characters I've ever watched.
So the fact "Mr. Robot" won for best drama and Christian Slater for best actor... that's good news for him and the show ;) about freaking time.

And Rob Lowe got snubbed, which makes me happy... the success of "The Grinder" still baffles me.

Now I think I can move onto movies...

Kate Winslet was the first winner of the night for "Steve Jobs"- one of two awards it brought home. (Aaron Sorkin, as I had suspected, got the other for writing... I'm surprised it and the Danish Girl weren't nominated for best picture despite all the acting nods).
I heard she was brilliant in it, so I wasn't surprised she won. Checking her profile, this is her 4th win of 11 nominations. But she seemed blown away based on the others she was up against in the supporting category.

Denzel Washington won the Cecil B. DeMille award and rightfully so. Tom Hanks had it right when he said greatness sometimes only needs one name. :P and seeing him up there with his family where he was finding it hard to put words together... that's the mark of a great character. People say he's so great, but he's as human as the rest of us.
And of course this reminded me I should probably see more of his movies. So far, I'd just seen "Glory" and "Remember the Titans."

"Inside Out" won for best Animated movie- definitely wasn't surprised about that. (My sister was gunning for the Peanuts movie cuz she saw it). And of course I regret not seeing it because it's gonna win the Oscar in all likelihood.

Sam Smith's Bond theme "Writing on the wall" won best original song. I wanted "Love me like you do" because it was one of my favorite songs last year... but I was really happy for him to win this. I was a skeptic at first because he felt a lot like the male Adele- a rich voice from England that does nothing but break-up songs. (That's the big reason why I can't really consider myself a big Adele fan- I can't live in that sphere of depressing songs forever, it'd kill me). But "Not the only one" slowly turned me around. And hearing "Stay with me" (despite my initial annoyance with the layered gospel backing vocals and the fact he's whining about a one-night stand had me questioning the legitimacy of its emotion) on "The Mindy Project" kinda won me over.

There were some funny moments presenting where the actors/directors were talking about the nominated movies.
Jason Statham getting his rage out one of the writers while apologizing to Melissa McCarthy about claiming he was playing the lead role.
And Ryan Gosling fake-fuming at Brad Pitt because he had to share the stage with him-- hey, I'm with you on that :P I like both of them, but it kinda doesn't seem fair they needed both of them for this.
Despite the almighty power of Brad Pitt, though, "The Big Short" got shorted on awards by getting zero...  the guy behind "Anchor Man" might be behind it, but I can't see it (or "Joy" or "The Martian" being comedies... something the actors didn't fail to bring up multiple times).

Great to see J-Law win another award, but I was kinda hoping Amy Schmur would to get some new blood into the Hollywood Foreign Press.
I also hoped "Trainwreck" would win as well... I didn't see it, but all the accolades had me questioning the fact I didn't.


I don't question "The Martian" simply because everyone said it was a really good movie. But it's not something I can get excited about. For me, space movies needs an element of fantasy and legit comedy for me to have interest... why else would I like "Star Wars" and "Guardians of the Galaxy"? Yet have no interest in this, "Interstellar" or "Gravity."
That inkling I had earlier about "Mozart in the Jungle"- I was starting to get it for "The Martian."

I'd seen Matt Damon nominated two other times without him winning. One of them was the year RDJ won- my first time watching the Globes- and his lead-in was his wife telling him Matt Damon was going to win. (The past couple years, I've ended Globes night by revisiting a series of clips of RDJ's triumphant Globes night in 2010... this year, I didn't do that... nothing to do with him. My head was in another of my interests and I didn't feel like jumping ship for the sake of a silly little quasi-tradition of mine).
The other nomination was for "Behind the Chandlebra"- Tina Fey & Amy Poehler referred to him as "The garbage man" because he was nominated for a made-for-TV movie :P and even Michael Douglas, who won for playing Liberace, said he should have won.
So seeing Matt Damon win was a nice change of pace- and he gave a great speech and showed a lot of humility. Particularly since he hadn't won since "Good Will Hunting"- for a co-writing credit.

Ricky Gervais joked about him being the one person Ben Affleck hadn't cheated on... which was one of a few laughs I had with him that night. Which by my "standards" is crazy. I'd been pissed at him since his RDJ Betty Ford comment when he hosted a couple years ago. And no, "everyone else had done it" isn't a good excuse...
But I suppose if I can like James Spader in an 80's movie, there's a chance Ricky Gervais could make me laugh. This world's a crazy place where pretty much anything can happen.

Even Leo maybe getting an Oscar...
but I think the other movies "The Revenant" was up against were kinda weak and didn't have enough publicity behind them to make an impact.
"Spotlight" had the man/woman power in the casting, but took nothing home. And it seems like a legitimately important film that needs the attention.
"Carol" got a lot of good press, but maybe not enough support from the people that matter in these situations.
"Mad Max: Fury Road" (RDJ might consider it a victory that Mel Gibson got an invitation, if only to introduce a prequel in an old franchise of his... because he'd been wanting "Hollywood to forgive Mel" for a couple years now)... I want to see it just to justify whether it's worth the hype, but I highly doubted it'd win.
"Room" didn't get a lot of press... but after reading the book jacket last week, it didn't surprise me that it was considered and that Brie Larson won for best actress... at the time of the nominations, I really thought anyone else would have won.

Of course everyone was saying Leo would won (I thought for sure it'd be Eddie Redmayne- for being transgender or Michael Fassbender- for being a scary good Steve Jobs) and the whole night seemed to be building up to that.
He gave probably the longest speech. A good speech. Then the air in the room got heavy when he pushed his political agenda long after his time was up and went on too long.

Which brings me to a point I've wanted to make for a while...
Why are people so hard on celebrities using their platform for an agenda? Or want to spend their money and use their image to promote something humanitarian?
I would understand the unease/balking if it was ALL they did. But it almost feels like that's frowned upon- whereas if someone famous wastes their money on drugs and hookers, shoulders are shrugged and nobody thinks twice.

With Leo, I thought he was great up until those last 30 seconds.
When your time is up, your time is up. Going long to promote something else, something potentially polarizing, it makes you seem... I don't know... insincere, maybe. As if he knew he had a captive audience, so he needed to give his 2 cents on something.
It makes about as much sense of everyone cursing last night... you guys know this going to be broadcast on NBC, so it feels disrespectful to us...cuz we're missing out on all the good stuff!

Another standing ovation of the night was Sylvester Stallone winning for "Creed" the only award it was nominated for... that was unexpected, the degree of respect in the room despite all the people over the years who made fun of the way he talks.
One thing I did notice, though, and Samuel L Jackson tweeted about it... he didn't mention Michael B. Jordan in his speech among the people he wanted to thank.
Now that doesn't seem fair- he's the star of this new movie and, again repeating myself, everyone's saying how good he is and I'm thinking why wasn't he nominated... eliminating the competition so Leo can win an Oscar?

I dunno... everyone's pushing so hard for Leo to finally win that it's starting to suffocate me.
Yes, I really like him and I still do.
My only reservation is that he does a lot of movies I have no interest in seeing. All of them seem very dramatic and dark... I'm just saying I'd kill to see him in a comedy... just once... and hopefully by then he won't be Robert DeNiro's age where he's no longer devilishly handsome.
So far, I'd just seen Titanic (which I can't ever see again because it's too long and I can't survive seeing him die again), Catch Me if You Can (which I enjoyed, but it's not good for repetitious watching), The Aviator (which I ought to see again cuz I don't remember it well- other than one scene he as Howard Hughes seemed to be losing his mind in his solitude)... then there are two movies I enjoyed and he happened to be in them. "The Great Gatsby" (despite all the Buz Luhrumann craziness) and "Inception" (where Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the real scene-stealer)... those I can watch multiple times and enjoy each time.

The Revenant seems like another of those movies, despite how everyone says it's great and Leo is great in it... it just looks like it's difficult to get through. The drama of it and the starkness of it... that's not why I go to the movies, people.

I'd rather waste my money on "Ride Along 2" and "How to Be Single"... both of them look stupid funny, but I might have them enjoyable.

Salvaging the 2016 Golden Globe nominations

These past couple years, I've been on top of this stuff. I recognize most of the films and people being nominated because of the hype they'd received.

Not only did I just find out the nominations came out this morning... but I don't recognize ANY of the nominees.

Okay, that's not entirely true... but it's jarring when so many names that I thought would be there are missing.
Like, where the hell is "Creed?" Why wasn't Michael B. Jordan nominated? People are saying the movie's so good and he's so good in it. The only nomination went to Sylvester Stallone as supporting actor.
This was a movie I was looking to see maybe this week because of all the accolades it's gotten. Now, it feels like I shouldn't even bother if I can't even brag that I saw a movie that got nominated for something.

All the movies being nominated- I've seen NONE of them and a lot of them I've never even heard of.
Carol- after seeing Cate Blanchett in the cast, I recognized it was that movie about a lesbian couple... is it even out yet?


And forget the TV nominations- so many of them are shows I don't even watch. Some are Netflix series I'm never going to see because I don't have Netflix (and wouldn't have time for said series even if I did).

Rob Lowe continues to be a source of frustration for me. In "The Grinder" (which I think I've flat-out refused to watch because the premise is stupid), he plays lawyer without an actual law degree, but he "played one on TV." Based on commercials alone, his character seems like an idiotic, uneducated version of Robert Downey Jr.'s lawyer character in "The Judge"... so how come Rob Lowe gets nominated for the exact same role and RDJ doesn't? I don't care if the win was a lock for Eddie Redmayne last year- the nomination would have been nice.

And for that matter, where is RDJ's Star on the Walk of Fame? So many other people that he can act circles around have gotten them before him. People with far less experience. I feel like I have to go "Shawshank" on the committee who gives the stars and send them a letter every day until they give this man what he deserves.
He's been clean and he's been extra brilliant for 10 years now. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?!
[Also, is there a rule against an actor getting their hand/foot prints at the Chinese theater AND getting a star? I know he has the hand/foot prints already... that's the only conceivable reason for his lack of recognition. His "record" shouldn't be holding him back anymore- he's paid his dues and is THRIVING]

So going by TV... the only nominations I'm really excited about are Viola Davis for "How to get away with murder" [the show itself should be nominated too!], Lady Gaga for "American Horror Story: Hotel" (simply because I'm a Little Monster- I haven't seen the show and I'm waiting for a freaking marathon so I can binge-watch it... or see one episode and freak out so much that I won't bother with the rest) and Oscar Isaac for "Show Me a Hero"

I keep waiting to see him do TV appearances for "Star Wars"- GMA gave me a taste yesterday, but it was maybe 45 seconds of him and 2 minutes of trailer footage.

Also, I hope Jon Hamm wins for "Mad Men" because he's never won and it's his last chance. (Didn't like the one episode I saw of it, but you hate to see someone get nominated dozens of times for the same role and not get awarded).

"Silicon Valley" is the only comedy TV series I'd seen of the nominations, so I'm backing that. [WTF are "Casual" and "Mozart in the Jungle"? Never heard of either of them].

*** Back to the movies

I probably shouldn't blog angry, but I need to vent about all this. I was on top of all this and suddenly... I'm not... I can blame my obsession with figure skating for it, but considering the crazy state of our country and the world right now, it's one of the few things that keeps me grounded (which is odd to say considering that ice is a slippery surface by nature).

I'll just list all the movies and go through this... and be pissed of that I'd seen none of them and most of them aren't even out in theaters yet.


Drama

• Carol (probably going to be wide release only)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (Didn't this movie got a lot of bad reviews? WTF?!)
• The Revenant (I just know Leo is in it and he got nominated for it... it probably isn't the type of movie that interests me... like so many of his dramas)
• Room (never heard it!)
• Spotlight (it's got my vote- I know it's about the cover-up of Catholic priest molestation allegations)

Comedy/Musical

• The Big Short (that's a comedy?! It's about the 2008 bank bail-out :( )
• Joy (it's got my vote- we have J-Law, Coop and DeNiro in this one- the more I see the trailers, the more I want to see it)
• The Martian (NOT A COMEDY! ...I've heard rave reviews about it from family, but I just can't get excited about a space movie. I had no desire to see "Gravity" or "Interstellar")
• Spy (I didn't think it got enough rave reviews to be considered... but okay)
• Trainwreck (my second choice behind "Joy"... even though I didn't get jazzed enough about it to see it in theaters)

I just noticed that Meryl Streep didn't get nominated for anything this time... but I can't get my hopes up too high. There's always the Oscars. They always find an excuse to nominate her for something.

With actors... let's see ...


Drama

• Bryan Cranston for "Trumbo" (no idea what that movie is...)
• Leo DiCaprio for "The Revenant"
• Will Smith for "Concussion" (I would have substituted him for Michael B. Jordan)
• the win is going to either Eddie Redmayne ("The Danish Girl" has gotten TONS of accolades, especially because of him) or Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs (because why not? so many people say he's so good he's scary in this)

Comedy

• Christian Bale and Steve Carell for "The Big Short" (again, this is a comedy?!)
• Matt Damon for "The Martian" (the movie isn't a comedy... but the nomination is deserved.. I'll give the win to him)
• Al Pacino for "Danny Collins" (What is this movie? And are they contractually obligated to nominate him too?)
• Mark Ruffalo for "Infinity Polar Bear" (I remember him promoting this movie, but I don't remember what it's about)

Supporting

• Paul Dano for "Love and Mercy" (Wasn't he the lead?)
• Idris Elba for "Beasts of No Nation (What is this movie?!)
• Mark Rylance for "Bridge of Spies" (I completely forgot about this movie... where are all its nominations? I thought having Steven Spielberg as a director was a lock for these things...)
• Michael Shannon for "99 Homes" (I think I might have heard of this movie... but I forget what it's about... they did a promo for it once MONTHS ago)
• Sylvester Stallone for "Creed"
• ...I've got no predications for this one...

Then for actresses (not including Meryl Streep for once)...


Drama

• Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara for "Carol"
• Brie Larson for "Room" (again, what is this movie?)
• Saorise Ronan for "Brooklyn" (heard a lot of good things about her in this movie)
• Alicia Vikander for "The Danish Girl" (odd the actors are getting nominations, but nothing about the movie itself)
• Cate's probably going to take it, but I like either Saorise or Alicia for the win

Comedy

• J-Law (WINNER!) for "Joy"
• Melissa McCarthy for "Spy"
• Amy Schumer for "Trainwreck" (I'd also accept her winning. Well-deserved)
• Maggie Smith for "Lady in the Van" (what lady? and why she is in the van? What is this movie? ...and of course if she wins, she won't be there to accept the award...)
• Lily Tomlin for "Grandma" (HUH?)

Supporting

• Jane Fonda for "Youth" (again, WHAT?)
• Jennifer Jason Leigh for "The Hateful Eight" (why that this movie's only nomination?... except for writing and score)
• Helen Mirren for "Trumbo"
• Alicia Vikander for "Ex Machina" (why wasn't Oscar Isaac nominated for this movie when everyone said he was so brilliant in it? ...it'd be interesting if she won for this AND "The Danish Girl" in the same night. Has that ever happened?)
• Kate Winslet for "Steve Jobs" (I heard she was brilliant...)

Aside from all that...

Lots of great "Best Original Songs"...
Despite the movie it came from (and how it doesn't quite match the subject matter), I really want to see "Love Me Like You Do" win... it's such a beautiful song that sweeps me off my feet every time I hear it.
But "See You Again" is a strong contender because it's a tribute to someone who died. And of course "Writing on the Wall" because it's a Bond theme and it's freaking Sam Smith singing it. (Oddly, it took me a while to come around with him... namely because all of his songs are whiny and weepy... kinda like the male version of Adele. I'd take Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran over them any day...)

For best animated film... "Inside Out" will probably win (and I'll probably keep kicking myself that I didn't see it... I don't know why. I just didn't have any interest).
I read one review of "The Good Dinosaur" that said it wasn't as good as all the other Pixar films... so I wonder why it got nominated at all.
My sister saw "The Peanuts Movie" and wants to see it win, obviously.
I heard all this praise for "Shaun the Sheep" but it never played here that I remember...

Why are all these supposed good movies ones that aren't even available to everyone? I get this happens every year (along with all the nominees being movies that aren't even in theaters yet)... but it just seems unfair.
You know, the majority of ticket sales are the result of business from NORMAL people. The other 99% that don't have Hollywood connections.