All posts tagged: Best Picture

To the Movies (an Update)

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Alert readers have been waiting for an update on the Browns’ choices for Best Picture of 2013.  Well, wait no longer! For others (who have better things to wait for) this is a follow-up post on our effort for the second year in a row to see all of the films nominated for Best Picture of the Year before the Oscars. We’re now two-thirds of the way home, having just come from a showing of Silver Linings Playbook and having seen Argo last weekend.  These were two very good movies. I don’t think they’ll win Best Picture, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t take home awards in other categories.  Bradley Cooper was excellent in the lead of Playbook, and I think I’m in love with Jennifer Lawrence.  Robert De Niro was – well, he’s Robert De Niro.  (He wasn’t on the screen a minute when Candice – she of the maiden name Colando – turned to me and said, “This is SUCH an Italian family!”) Alan Arkin was also terrific in Argo (but both De …

Academy Awards Here We Come (Again)

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Last year I broke a 57-year-old tradition and decided to see all the films nominated in  the Academy Awards Best Picture category.  We had a blast, updating More to Come… when I thought we’d seen the winner, as well as on the night of the awards. This year, Candice and I are back at it again. We thought we had an early start. Over the summer and fall we went to a couple of movies that, to our eye, had Best Picture possibilities.  We both loved The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom. Shows what we know. But we quickly hit our stride, and after tonight’s viewing of Beasts of the Southern Wild at AFI Silver Theatre, we’ve now seen four of the nine Best Picture nominees. Since it is our most recent viewing, I’ll just say that Beasts of the Southern Wild is an interesting film, but best picture quality…ummm, I don’t think so.  And I’m sorry, but Quvenzhané Wallis did not deserve a nomination above Maggie Smith in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. …

If I Had a Vote (Or “Quest for the Best, The Final Chapter”)

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Tonight is when the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announce their awards, and for once I’m ready! Friends who have known me for a long time will find it impossible to believe that I’ve seen eight of the nine Best Picture nominees BEFORE the Oscars are awarded…much less that I have an opinion on them.  I’m just not a film junkie. But empty nestdom brought a change in habits, and Candice and I made a pledge to see all the nominees.  We made it through eight before life, health and work kept us from closing out our pledge…but since Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is NEVER mentioned in all the pre-Oscar write-ups as having a chance of winning, I think we’re on safe ground here. Number eight in our marathon was The Tree of Life – which we watched today thanks to iTunes.  Easily the most complex of the nominees, Terrence Malick’s film was not among my favorites even though it attempted to explore greater depths on issues of life …

Quest for the Best Part II (Or Have We Just Seen the Winner?)

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When last we visited, dear readers, Candice and I were on a quest to see all the nominees for Best Picture. Tonight, I think we saw the winner.  Or at the very least, my choice. I know, we still have four movies to go (who in the world came up with NINE nominations?!), but Hugo is such a wonderful story, told in a loving way, with that terrific 3D look…well, I’m ready to place my bets. (Column interruption:  I really don’t bet.  Every monetary bet I’ve ever made in my life, I’ve lost.  My good friend John Lane said it best:  “I have the same chance of winning the lottery whether I buy a ticket or not.”  Now back to the regularly scheduled blog post.) It doesn’t mean the other movies aren’t worth seeing.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all five.  I went to see The Artist with minimal expectations, but found it enchanting.  It didn’t hurt that we caught that movie in the restored AFI Silver Theatre here in Silver Spring – a perfect place to …

A Quest for the Best (Picture, That Is)

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Never in a single one of my 56 (almost 57) years have I seen all the films nominated for the Academy Awards Best Picture category.  Heck, most years I’m lucky to have seen one! This year will be different. What’s the use of having an empty nest if you don’t do things differently now that the kids are away, right? When the Academy announced its nominees for 2011 earlier this week, a light went off in my head.  Heck, I’d already seen two of the films:  War Horse and The Descendants.  How difficult could it be to see the others before the Academy Awards show late in February? How many do they nominate anyway, five? So I shot an email off to Candice and suggested we try to catch all the nominees before the show.  Candice – who would say my major failing as a human being is the fact that I seldom (read almost never) go to the movies – eagerly accepted. Okay, we’re on!  So let’s go to the Oscar website and make …