Yes, the time is sparse, and the amount of blog posts few and far apart because of my crazy “new” life of trying to start at Consultancy Company with my boyfriend. We are spending unbelievable amount of time on trying to get the business of to a good start, not counting doing all the work that needs doing for our, right now only, client. Even so, when there is any time left, it is spend obsessing about the Oscars, and watching as much of the Winter Olympics as we can get away with.
Why, you may ask (If you do not, well, that is not very polite of you, how am I ever to get any conversation going with myself, if you the reader are not willing to ask the questions I want to answer?), and that is a very good and polite question to ask. The shortest possible answer is: It is fun (Yes, the answer would have been shorter if I had written it’s and not it is, stop nitpicking now, will you?).
1. The Oscars
The hipster part of me thoroughly enjoys watching all the Oscar nominated movies (At least the ones in the meaningful categories, you are not getting me to watch “Jackass presents: Bad Grandpa”, just because it is nominated for ’Makeup and Hairstyling’, there are limits to the obsession – even for me), and even though, as always, there are both hidden gems, disappointments, and just plain sleep-inducing boring movies, it is worth it. Because you get to watch movies in styles and genres that, I at least, would not normally watch.
Here are the categories that I had set out to watch:
- Best picture
- Actor/Actress in a Leading role
- Actor/Actress in a supporting role
- Animated feature
- Directing
- Documentary feature
- Film editing
- Foreign language film
- All the shorts (live action, documentary, animated)
- …and hearing all the music from the best score and the best song
Even though I have not seen them all yet (I am missing all the shorts (AmazonOnDemand will have them available at the end of February), the Japanese animation feature, Nebraska and Philomena from the big categories, hearing some of the best scores and two of the foreign features), I am starting to have an idea about how I would like the Oscars to turn out this year. Not that they will, which is why I, as always, keep to lists, one for who I hope is going to win, and one on who I actually think is going to win.
However, let us back for my reason for being in Oscar frenzy. I am usually very picky with the movies I watch both in theatres and at home, and there are genres that are almost never represented in my normal movie watching, that always gets Oscar nominations, just as some of the genres I watch frequently, almost never gets Oscar nominated (Yes I enjoy watching Superhero movies and brain-dead action movies, so shoot me).
This means that when it get to Oscar nominee time of the year, I can look forward to a great amount of new and exciting experiences, that usually both touches me, gets me annoyed, leaves me in tears, bores me, depresses me, makes me laugh, enlightens me and expands my horizon. This year was no exception. It is an amazingly strong field this year, but despite this, I still have some experiences I absolutely adore, and some I absolutely loathe. A few random notes on all things Oscar so far:
Not to start all over again, since my last blog post also covered this, WHY is Gravity nominated for best picture, and WHY is Sandra Bullock nominated for best Actress?
Why is Joaquin Phoenix not nominated for Her? Last year, his excellent performance in The Master, got outshined by Daniel Day Lewis, but this year, he is perhaps even better…
Do not watch The Act of Killing while eating, since it will with all probability make you feel sick, but please do watch it, because it is excellent. And I usually does not praise Danish pictures, not even the documentaries. With that said, the Danish picture in the foreign feature category is also surprisingly good, even though this Danish love for social-realism types of movies, is not shared by me.
Please if you only watch one picture this year watch either Dallas Buyers Club or Her. They are both brilliant, if not as hyped as some of the other movies. I am still trying to figure out if I think Matthew McConaughey or Jared Leto has the best performance of that movie, they keep on trying to outshine each other. I think the reason I keep on mentioning this movie, is because I absolutely dreaded watching it, since it seemed like just the kind of movie I hate, when I watched the trailer. Then it turned out, it was just brilliant. The same goes for Her, which I really thought would be toe-cringingly bad. The last movie in this category, was Captain Phillips that I had to force myself to watch, and then it turned out that it was actually pretty good, if not as amazing as the other two.
I am still on the fence on Broken Circle Breakdown, I disagree entirely with the way see the world, making me passionate and empathic about the opposite of the main characters, as the picture tries to make the one you should have passion and empathy about. Whereas the one the movie highlights as “the good one”, I really get to a point where the person annoys me more and more and more. So I disagree with what the movie is trying to portray, but if you look beyond that, it still portrays some very interesting characters. And the music is very catching, and very enjoyable.
I could write so much more about the Oscars, and hopefully I will still get the time to do that before it is all over 😉
2. The Olympics
Since the opening ceremony (even if you do not watch the Olympics, watch the opening and the closing ceremony is an absolute must), I have been watching weird and less weird Olympic sports. As I am writing, I am watching Snowboarding Halfpipe, which is just such an amazing sport to look at, and the Danish Broadcasting services have chosen to let one of my favorite radio show hosts right now, Peter Falktoft, commentate on all things Snowboard. Making it just awesome to watch and listen to.
Other favorite so far have been watching Bruno Banani on the luge (still waiting for the Skeleton competitions, which is the same as the luge, just head first.), and watching people falling, jumping etc., while skiing.
The winter Olympics is a cornucopia of watchable sports, that you, without needing too much knowledge about it, can enjoy watching. Since it is only once every 4 years, then why not try to enjoy as much of it as you can, while it is here, I know I am.
So right now, I am working, working, working, and the watching Oscar nominated pictures, and as large amounts of Winter sports, as I can fit in.
So, I am still alive and kicking 😉
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