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MOVIES
Went on a bit of a movie watching extravaganza this weekend and saw The King's Speech and True Grit, both of which are wonderful movies and I can't recommend them nearly enough. First up: The King's Speech!
I saw this just in time, considering I randomly watched The Golden Globes last night. Normally I steer clear of awards shows because they tend to be a million hours long and never that entertaining. But I was working from home last night and wanted some background noise. I'd read that Colin Firth pretty much had the Lead Actor in a Drama category wrapped up and I couldn't agree more. He was fantastic as King George VI, and what a part to play! He had the perfect mixture of stoic (we're talking British royalty here), strength, and vulnerability. He was so human in his faults (temper, frustration, etc) and even knowing the outcome of the movie didn't detract from his speech at the in the least. Plus, I just loved the look of the whole movie. I read one review (Ebert?) that talked about how a lot of the sets were these long, narrow spaces that served as a sort of mirror to Bertie's struggle to get words up and out his throat. As a bonus, Helena Bonham Carter was a treat as his wife Elizabeth.
I guess it was rated 'R' because of the use of 'fuck'? It's not even used in a sexual context. Bertie blurts it out in a fabulous tirade during a speech therapy session. It's a shame if the rating is what keeps people from seeing this movie.
Next Up: True Grit!
After I saw this movie I turned to my sister and asked her which she liked better: The King's Speech or True Grit. She couldn't decide. I'm not entirely sure of my opinion, because while I think The King's Speech is technically the better movie, I found True Grit slightly more entertaining. It's the one I thought more about when I decided to write this entry. Maybe simply because as a western there is more straight up adventure? I also think it's in large part due to Mattie Ross, the 14 year old girl dead-set on avenging her father's murder.
Mattie Ross is my hero.
She's the kind of female character I wish we saw more of. She's not some over-sexualized super girl, she's smart bold, and mature - completely no nonsense. This is her story and it kills me that she wasn't nominated for a Golden Globe. I hope the Oscars right that wrong. Hailee Steinfeld is the most self-possessed young woman I've seen in quite some time. She had absolutely no issue holding her own against Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon (both of whom were great as well. Bridges as the drunken US Marshall Rooster Cogburn and Damon as prissy yet tough Texas Ranger). I want so badly for her to be Katniss in The Hunger Games. It really want the rumor mills to be true about that one.
Back to the movie - it's just such a good time. It's dramatic and humorous and exciting. I don't think I can say enough about the cast. Just like with The King's Speech, everything fell into place with the main three cast members. I could forever gush about Steinfeld as Mattie. After her fierce negotiations with a horse dealer at the beginning of the movie, I literally turned to my sister and said "OK, she's awesome." Seriously.
Bridges is, as always, great. I've never seen the John Wayne version (though the senior citizens in our theater did complain at the end that the Wayne version was superior. But they are also the crowd that bitched about the previews, so...) but from what I've read is that they took a story that belongs to Mattie Ross and made it about Rooster. Now, Rooster gets his own redemption arc, but it's not truly his journey. And I guess Wayne also played a slightly cleaned up version. Bridges' Rooster was a filthy drunk, with a temper, and a slightly shady past. But he grows into a kind of father figure for Mattie as the journey goes on. He disappoints her many times, but pulls it out in the end.
Matt Damon's LaBeouf was kind of a riot. Very high on himself, especially in comparison to Rooster, and, I admit this nervously... has a bit of sexual tension with a fourteen year old. I swear, that scene where Rooster drinks himself into a stupor and calls the search for Chaney off and Mattie tells LaBeouf she chose the wrong man? In any other film where she wasn't fourteen there would have been some makeoutage going down. But, just like Rooster, Mattie brings out the best in him.
They made such a dysfunctional little unit, that the only reason I can't say I outright love this movie is that they all lost touch. After dispatching the Lucky Ned Gang, Rooster stays with Mattie only long enough after her snakebite to make sure she's okay, and then he's gone. LaBeouf saves Rooster from Lucky Ned and Mattie from Chaney (before getting knocked out with a rock) and is never heard from again. I guess what bothers me most is that we don't really know how Mattie spent the rest of her life. We know she never married, and she did bury Rooster in her family plot, so there is some closure there. We know he was important to her. But what else? It would kill me if she spent the remainder of her life unhappy. I know the Wild West is a bitch. The whole movie is a testament to that, but there has to be a glimmer of happiness somewhere.
And this is where I bitch about the ratings system again, because True Grit was rated PG-13. It had fingers getting sliced off, gun shot wounds, tongues being partially bit off, and smoking and drinking all over the place. But they didn't say fuck, HEAVEN FORBID.
Anyway, awesome movie. Go see it. I want to watch it again.
Now, for some Golden Globes bitching. We'll move past the fact that True Grit got shut out, which I think is a shame. All three main parts were played to perfection, the dialogue was great (a much truer adaption to the book than the first movie, from what I've read) and the scenery and camera work was A+. Maybe it wouldn't have won, but it surely deserved some nominations.
Hate that Glee won Best Comedy. Not only should Community have been nominated, at the very least Modern Family should have gotten the win over freaking Glee. Ugh. Though, oddly enough, I'm fine with the Supporting Actor/Actress nods that Chris Colfer and Jane Lynch got (especially because they had some of the best speeches of the night).
Even more than that - I can't accept that Mad Men didn't win for Best Drama. Now, I'm pretty biased here because I've never seen Boardwalk Empire, but Mad Men was AMAZING this season. Jon Hamm was incredible as Don Draper and had some of the meatiest material he's ever had on the show.
UGH, THIS IS WHY I DON'T WATCH AWARD SHOWS.
I saw this just in time, considering I randomly watched The Golden Globes last night. Normally I steer clear of awards shows because they tend to be a million hours long and never that entertaining. But I was working from home last night and wanted some background noise. I'd read that Colin Firth pretty much had the Lead Actor in a Drama category wrapped up and I couldn't agree more. He was fantastic as King George VI, and what a part to play! He had the perfect mixture of stoic (we're talking British royalty here), strength, and vulnerability. He was so human in his faults (temper, frustration, etc) and even knowing the outcome of the movie didn't detract from his speech at the in the least. Plus, I just loved the look of the whole movie. I read one review (Ebert?) that talked about how a lot of the sets were these long, narrow spaces that served as a sort of mirror to Bertie's struggle to get words up and out his throat. As a bonus, Helena Bonham Carter was a treat as his wife Elizabeth.
I guess it was rated 'R' because of the use of 'fuck'? It's not even used in a sexual context. Bertie blurts it out in a fabulous tirade during a speech therapy session. It's a shame if the rating is what keeps people from seeing this movie.
Next Up: True Grit!
After I saw this movie I turned to my sister and asked her which she liked better: The King's Speech or True Grit. She couldn't decide. I'm not entirely sure of my opinion, because while I think The King's Speech is technically the better movie, I found True Grit slightly more entertaining. It's the one I thought more about when I decided to write this entry. Maybe simply because as a western there is more straight up adventure? I also think it's in large part due to Mattie Ross, the 14 year old girl dead-set on avenging her father's murder.
Mattie Ross is my hero.
She's the kind of female character I wish we saw more of. She's not some over-sexualized super girl, she's smart bold, and mature - completely no nonsense. This is her story and it kills me that she wasn't nominated for a Golden Globe. I hope the Oscars right that wrong. Hailee Steinfeld is the most self-possessed young woman I've seen in quite some time. She had absolutely no issue holding her own against Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon (both of whom were great as well. Bridges as the drunken US Marshall Rooster Cogburn and Damon as prissy yet tough Texas Ranger). I want so badly for her to be Katniss in The Hunger Games. It really want the rumor mills to be true about that one.
Back to the movie - it's just such a good time. It's dramatic and humorous and exciting. I don't think I can say enough about the cast. Just like with The King's Speech, everything fell into place with the main three cast members. I could forever gush about Steinfeld as Mattie. After her fierce negotiations with a horse dealer at the beginning of the movie, I literally turned to my sister and said "OK, she's awesome." Seriously.
Bridges is, as always, great. I've never seen the John Wayne version (though the senior citizens in our theater did complain at the end that the Wayne version was superior. But they are also the crowd that bitched about the previews, so...) but from what I've read is that they took a story that belongs to Mattie Ross and made it about Rooster. Now, Rooster gets his own redemption arc, but it's not truly his journey. And I guess Wayne also played a slightly cleaned up version. Bridges' Rooster was a filthy drunk, with a temper, and a slightly shady past. But he grows into a kind of father figure for Mattie as the journey goes on. He disappoints her many times, but pulls it out in the end.
Matt Damon's LaBeouf was kind of a riot. Very high on himself, especially in comparison to Rooster, and, I admit this nervously... has a bit of sexual tension with a fourteen year old. I swear, that scene where Rooster drinks himself into a stupor and calls the search for Chaney off and Mattie tells LaBeouf she chose the wrong man? In any other film where she wasn't fourteen there would have been some makeoutage going down. But, just like Rooster, Mattie brings out the best in him.
They made such a dysfunctional little unit, that the only reason I can't say I outright love this movie is that they all lost touch. After dispatching the Lucky Ned Gang, Rooster stays with Mattie only long enough after her snakebite to make sure she's okay, and then he's gone. LaBeouf saves Rooster from Lucky Ned and Mattie from Chaney (before getting knocked out with a rock) and is never heard from again. I guess what bothers me most is that we don't really know how Mattie spent the rest of her life. We know she never married, and she did bury Rooster in her family plot, so there is some closure there. We know he was important to her. But what else? It would kill me if she spent the remainder of her life unhappy. I know the Wild West is a bitch. The whole movie is a testament to that, but there has to be a glimmer of happiness somewhere.
And this is where I bitch about the ratings system again, because True Grit was rated PG-13. It had fingers getting sliced off, gun shot wounds, tongues being partially bit off, and smoking and drinking all over the place. But they didn't say fuck, HEAVEN FORBID.
Anyway, awesome movie. Go see it. I want to watch it again.
Now, for some Golden Globes bitching. We'll move past the fact that True Grit got shut out, which I think is a shame. All three main parts were played to perfection, the dialogue was great (a much truer adaption to the book than the first movie, from what I've read) and the scenery and camera work was A+. Maybe it wouldn't have won, but it surely deserved some nominations.
Hate that Glee won Best Comedy. Not only should Community have been nominated, at the very least Modern Family should have gotten the win over freaking Glee. Ugh. Though, oddly enough, I'm fine with the Supporting Actor/Actress nods that Chris Colfer and Jane Lynch got (especially because they had some of the best speeches of the night).
Even more than that - I can't accept that Mad Men didn't win for Best Drama. Now, I'm pretty biased here because I've never seen Boardwalk Empire, but Mad Men was AMAZING this season. Jon Hamm was incredible as Don Draper and had some of the meatiest material he's ever had on the show.
UGH, THIS IS WHY I DON'T WATCH AWARD SHOWS.