I had not been to the movies since May. That is not to say that I have not seen any movies. Thanks to DVD’s and cable, I have seen more than my share. When the academy announced their nominees, I realized that I actually had not seen enough movies. Hollywood has conspired to keep their best movies in the theaters until Oscar time. They think that they can trick us into going to see the movies instead of waiting until the DVD. This time their scheme worked. I checked the showtimes, then had to decide if I wanted to drive 20, 25, or 30 minutes to get to the theater. I was dreading going all the way over to west Little Rock and once again lamenting the fact that North Rock does not have a theater. I say there is no theater in NLR because I swore off Lakewood around a decade ago. My desire to spend less time in the car overcame my desire for a modern theater. So I headed over to Lakewood for the 2:00 show.
My next choice was which movie to see. My choices were True Grit and Black Swan. I am a big fan of the Coen brothers, but Natalie Portman is the future mother of my children. I will pick her over the Coens every day of the week. I bought my ticket and purchased a late lunch of Pibb and popcorn. When I walked into my theater, it was completely empty. I was so overjoyed at the thought of watching the movie alone, that I did not even care that there was a center aisle that prevents me from sitting in the center of the room. I chose a seat and started inhaling the popcorn while waiting for the movie to start. When 2:00 rolled around, Natalie and I still had the room to ourselves.
I am not going to spoil the movie for you, but my girl rocked. I just looked at the list of past Best Actress winners, and she blew them all away. There is no way that she does not win the Oscar. I am now debating whether or not to see True Grit. If I do not see it, I can cheer for Black Swan in all categories with a clean conscience.
Natalie became the Oscar Front Runner for Best Actress on Saturday Night dashing Annette Bening's hopes of winning the Oscar on her fourth time at bat. Natalie won the 17th SAG Award Best Actress. Since the SAG Awards for 1994, the Best Actress SAG winner has won The Academy Award 12 times out of the last 16 awards. Additionally, Natalie has won The Golden Globe, and The Boston and Chicago Film Critic Awards for Best Actress.
ReplyDeleteI have seen all the nominated performances and she does give the best performance by an actress in 2010. Natalie's performance was sublime. "Black Swan" puts the actress's role front and center and Natalie Portman shows her younger peers what a performance is. "Black Swan" is now my favorite Natalie performance followed closely by her heartfelt portrayal of Anne Frank in 1997.
Seeing "True Grit" (my seccond favorite Coen Brothers film) in the theatre should not stop you from cheering for "Black Swan" in all categories because the Best Picture and Best Director are going to be "The King's Speech" and Tom Hopper for directing "The King's Speech". "The King's Speech" is another superb film from late 2010.
On a personal level, Natalie is engaged to choregrapher Benjamin Millepied. Natalie and Benjamin are expecting their first child this summer. If this relationship should not last and by some freak accident you landed on her short list of suitors, the relationship would be doomed because Natalie has been a vegetarian most of her life. In 2009, Natalie decided being a vegetarian was not fulfillng and she became a vegan. Your love of red meat would automatically get you cut from the short list.
But Natalie does look forward to being alone with you again when "Thor" is released in May 2011. She is even saving a seat for you in the center of the Dickson Chenal Imax 9 theatre.
If you only see three films in the theatre this winter, the ones to see are "The King's Speech", "Black Swan", and "True Grit".
I'm not tryin to tell you what to do...
ReplyDeleteBut considering the fact that I rarely go to the movies, I think it's noteworthy that I've now seen "True Grit" twice.
It's that good.
I have now deleted five comments here for fear that the public would not get the jokes being made. I think that you can guess the subject matter and its relationship to the movie Leon aka The Professional
ReplyDeleteLéon: And stop saying "okay" all the time. Okay?
ReplyDeleteMathilda: Okay.
Léon: Good.
Mathilda: I am already grown up, I just get older.
Stansfield: Death is... whimsical... today.
Mathilda: Can we try with real bullets now?
Mathilda: Is life always this hard, or is it just when you're a kid?
Léon: Always like this.
Stansfield: I like these calm little moments before the storm. It reminds me of Beethoven. Can you hear it? It's like when you put your head to the grass and you can hear the growin' and you can hear the insects. Do you like Beethoven?
Malky: I couldn't really say.
Mathilda: Leon, I think I'm kinda falling in love with you.
[Leon chokes on his milk]
Mathilda: It's the first time for me, you know?
Léon: [wiping himself off] How do you know it's love if you've never been in love before?
Mathilda: 'Cause I feel it.
Léon: Where?
Mathilda: [stoking her stomach] In my stomach. It's all warm. I always had a knot there and now... it's gone.
Léon: Mathilda, I'm glad you don't have a stomach ache any more. I don't think it means anything.
Thank you Not One To Give Up On A Joke for reminding me how wonderful this film is. I will have to watch it this weekend.
@Bill What makes you think that I would have to give up meat for her. Maybe she will give up vegetables for me. Or more likely we love each other enough to accept each other for who we are.
ReplyDelete@Mac I knew that I was setting you up for a joke when I wrote this. I appreciate your discretion.
I had another joke about how all choreographers are gay and how Portman's monumental appeal had gotten her new fiancée to switch teams despite the difficulty of such a proposition. Sadly, I couldn't ever get the wording just right, so you'll just have to chuckle at the concept.
ReplyDeleteI know your question was rhetorical, but I will answer anyway.
ReplyDeleteBeing 2008 years old, it is hard for me not to be cynical about love and what people will do for love. It would be wonderful if two people could just accept each other and thrive in a very happy marriage.
If the freak accident happened and you did marry Natalie, I would cry for happy for you. We both know I did it once and I would do it again.
Fortunately, something as small as meat and vegetables would not be the undoing of the relationship.
If by some freak accident this should be seen by Natalie, Mac, I want to stress that Benjamin is more Baryshnikov than Nureyev when it comes to romance. Before his relationship with Natalie, the 34 year old choreographer had been living with the 24 year Isabella Boylyston for the last six years. So he likes them young too.
When I met the 17 years old Natalie (June 1998) backstage during the run of "Anne Frank" on Broadway, Dr. and Mrs. Hershlag(Natalie's parents and her real last name)had to be present. I was not allowed to be in the photographs with Natalie ( even though I was with Kyra). I was only allowed to take a few photographs of Natalie. Dr. Hershlag took the roll of film to the one hour photo store next to the theatre to get the film developed for me. He wanted to approve the photographs I took of Natalie. I did get a personally autographed copy of the Playbill.
So the joke I think Mac wanted to make about an older man and young girl was definitely on the forefront of Dr. Herschlag's mind. Please see the attached link about this.