Gladiator (2000)

K: I didn't see this film when it first came out (at the time, I was living in Grinnell, IA, which has one movie theater...sometimes) but the Michigan screened it as part of their great directors series. You all have probably already seen it (and I have to get back to work), so I will keep this brief.

1) It was really good to see it on the big screen. Unfortunately, I don't think that it would be nearly as powerful on a small screen.

2) Russel Crowe is really good. Maybe not oscar good...but I understand it was a slow year (once again...no movie theater in 2000). He did very well with the really gung-ho, let-loose parts of the film, but I thought that he did a particularly good job with some of the more subtle scenes, where he is concealing thoughts, containing anger, or making transitions.

3) Given the genre, the director and cinematographer did some fairly innovative things--the battle scenes were especially good.

4) Unfortunately for me, the exact things that made the movie good also made it difficult to watch. It is a fairly intense experience, and left me fairly worn out.

5) This is embarrassing, but I...um...cried. A lot. This is somewhat unusual for me, but I couldn't help it. It was moving. I was doing ok until the last time he walks through the field. I just lost it. Something about going home to those you love really hits me hard.

On the whole, it was definitely worth seeing. I would even say worth the Oscars it won. Certainly not on par with No Country for Old Men, but WAY better than Titanic.

Post Oscar....um...post.

I had intended to do some kind of wrap up at the end of the night last night, but it turns out that 2 straight hours of blogging does a number on your back--at least if you adopt the kind of vulture-on-carrion pose I use when typing while sitting on the floor. Ross termed it "discomblogulation". Yes indeed. This is the kind of humor I enjoy on a daily basis. Jealous? I thought so.

You may have noticed that the quality of my posts deteriorated significantly as the evening wore on. My overuse of the double dash became almost criminal. I freaking love the double dash. Since almost all of the films I wrote about were worth seeing, the lower than usual quality of these posts makes me somewhat sad. However, none of the posts were as bad as I thought they would be, and as the sticky note above my desk tells me every day--done is better than perfect! (there's that double dash again). Besides, there is something honest about an unedited blog post. Among other things, you get to see how piss-poor my writing has become after 4 years in graduate school.

And now the summery of the evening, broken into lazy, I-need-to-get-back-to-work bullet points:
--We didn't mention anything about the red carpet. This is because 1)Ross and I are not exactly the people you would turn to for thoughtful fashion commentary and 2) Regis Philbin is a train wreck. A very very orange train wreck. Maybe if we all agree to ignore him, he'll go away.
--Ross and I saw all of the animated short film nominees. Since most of America didn't join us, they will just have to take our word for it. Peter and the Wolf was a bizarre choice.
--Tilde Swinton clearly never thought that she would be up on stage. I have no idea what happened with best supporting actress. I didn't see most of the best actress films, so I can't really comment on that. But Cate Blanchett should have won.
--Once won for best original song. Good thing, because otherwise I would have turned off the tv.
--The rest of the awards went as expected (read: the right way).
--Overall, it was more entertaining than usual. John Stewart had some good material to work with, the montages were relevant and interesting (I even stopped typing to watch). I especially enjoyed the montages of previous best actor/actress and best picture awards.

Whew...back to work. Maybe Ross will take over the next couple of posts. He's always funnier than I am.

Oscar Blog-o-fest, 2008: The predictions

K: Tonight is the Oscars, and we don't blog nearly enough. So in a two-birds-one-stone move, I'm planning to post as much as humanly possible during the Oscars. Let's see how many posts I can manage.

This year, we've seen many of the Oscar nominees, including all of the best picture nominees. We've seen Juno, Michael Clayton, There will be Blood, No Country for Old Men, Atonement (Ross only), Persepolis, Elizabeth the Golden Age, The Savages, and I'm not There.

My humble predictions:

Best Picture:
should win: No Country for Old Men--because it is simply awesome
might win instead: Atonement--never underestimate the power of a period film

Best Actor:
should win: Daniel Day Lewis (There Will be Blood)
will win: Daniel Day Lewis--he really has this tied up

Best Actress
should win: Ellen Page (Juno)--because she really carries the film
probably will win instead: Julie Christie (Away from Her)--semi-retired actress comes out for one last huzzah

Best Supporting Actor
should win: Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)--because he is SO great
long shot: Casey Affleck (The assassination of Jesse James...)--he was supposed to be awesome in this, but I can't imagine that Javier Bardem won't win

Best Supporting Actress
should win: Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There)--she is really amazingly good in this (though really, she always is)
might win instead: Saoirse Ronan (Atonement)--though I would be surprised

Best Director
should win: The Cohen Brothers -- they've had too many great movies not to
might win: PT Anderson