"i think you should date miss yum yum"
before meeting with the oscar party club yesterday for brunch at the smith, i sat on the no. 6 train and quickly filled out my "official" oscar ballot. i would have done just as well to tack the thing to my wall and toss darts (and i am pretty terrible dart player). i'd only seen three of the nominated films (slumdog, benji button, and the changeling), and my favorite film from last year, gran torino, was shut out by the academy entirely. i had a little word-of-mouth to go on, but it wasn't going to serve me well enough. the other oscar party members had seen nearly everything, and whatever they hadn't seen (maybe only the animated shorts?) they did their homework on.
i couldn't bring much to the brunch conversation, except a few shrugs, some laughs. during one discussion of glaring academy omissions and snubs (benicio del toro for che--part 1, was a big one) teresa said, "and, bruce springsteen for the wrestler..." and i said, "WHAT?! bruce springsteen was in the wrestler?!!" HA! i thought maybe bruce was going the way of tom waits? wrong, wrong, wrong. i am surprised they didn't boot my ass from the table. (ah, that's what i love about the oscar party members--they are very keen on and about film, but they don't close off the circle if you haven't quite kept up. i always leave their company wanting to know and see more...)
i had actually thought about skipping yesterday's oscar telecast since i hadn't felt invested in any of the outcomes. but after our brunch together, i had all of this intel--stories about danny boyle, sean penn, mickey rourke, and melissa leo. all of a sudden, i cared.
(wasn't it entertaining, as award shows go? i loved high jackman's opening bit, especially when he'd laugh during the songs. i despise lip-syncing in part because that it ruins any hope for a great honest moment--i love when performers allow themselves to have fun. i mean, what would águas de março be without elis regina's laugh? [here, at around 2:40]. anyway, sure, parts of jackman's performance were totally cheese. but who can't use a little of that on a sunday night in february? he and anne hathaway had me giggling out loud. and i'm a little in love with james franco. his laugh just might get me through this interminable winter. i hope someone throws that short film bit on youtube soon. )
after the long good night, the oscar party club results were tallied, i fared the worst of our group (congrats, anthony!). oh, i knew i was saying goodbye to that $10 dollars the minute i handed it over with my ballot, but i feel fine about the loss. between their company, and all the films they've inspired me to see, i still feel like i came out ahead.
*****
i used to spend a fair amount of time watching movies. i still watch a lot of films on tcm, but i'm not as avid a DVD watcher as i was back in the days before netflix. call it a phase...
there was a time, if you lived in the far west village, before rents went high as the sky, you had at least three pretty great options for movie rentals, rko video (which became good restaurant), mrs. hudson's video library (which survived a flood, only to close about a year later) and kim's video (whose entire archive now lives in sicily!). my lone, loud lament about the neighborhood was that by the time i left, i couldn't rent a damn video anywhere, but i could take my dog (if i had one) to any one of three doggie hotels and spas that had opened.
it was a west village evolution that did not suit me.
netflix is a nice convenience, but it sucks the romance out of the whole affair for me. half the fun is going to the store with something in mind that you're dying to see that night--and a lot of great discoveries result when what you want isn't available. you're forced to pace around, poke around, and negotiate your plan b with your friend/friends.
i miss that.
but if i'm going to fall back in love with the movies (and make progress on this "film addicts" list, passed along from the oscar club members), i guess i'll just have kiss my romantic notions (of the dvd storefront, at least) good-bye.
***
if you want fun, reliable recommendations, visit (OC club founders) teresa and richard's blog, film snobs.
AND: look for richard--a very fine stage and screen actor--in this summer's blockbuster, public enemies. depp, bale, marion cotillard and richard short--remember his name. big things are on the horizon.
***
one final note about gran torino. when teresa came to work raving about it last fall, i thought she was referring to some throwback eastwood film from the early 70s! i knew nothing of it. without her ardour for it (and clint), i might have waited until its dvd release, or possibly skipped it altogether.
while the acting wasn't top-notch, and i hope to never hear those slurs outside of the theater (which didn't prevent me from laughing out loud at the ridiculousness, the audacity, and out and out "wrongness" of them), i left the theater knowing that gran torino would be my "best picture" for 2008.
yes--slumdog was a fantastic tale of love. i liked what it had to say about how people acquire knowledge and wisdom, and how morality and character develop. and it certainly was energetic and uplifting. but i don't know that there's been a film that has presented more fully the complexities of the asian immigrant and asian-american experience--or for that matter, even tried--until gran torino. it is so much more than a film about racism, revenge and gang-violence-- it broaches issues that i could only begin to meaningfully consider through academic study... and there was so much sad truth in how intolerance and racist attitudes are formed...how the road to true understanding can be, at times, treacherous, brutal.
but gran torino is also, at its core, optimistic--it bears the hope that we can each encounter a soul who can see past our fear and withstand our craziness, whose openness allows us see and understand things in a way we hadn't before. that's what "sue" was to that old walt kowalski. seems to me that makes it, in its own way, a story about love.
