A Sigh of Relief

It's over people. The Oscars, as much as it saddens be to finally be rid of James Franco's stoned lines on that epic night last week, I am so excited at the outcomes of the Oscar winners. I think we all knew that Colin First was going to win Best Actor, he greatly deserved it, I mean come on his movie was in the box office for like 6 months, he should at least get some recognition. No, but in all seriousness, Firth not only played the role of King George with accuracy and truth, he commanded the role and made it his own.


Here is the clip of all of the Best actor nominee's and Colin Firth's acceptance speech. There is a great shot of James Franco looking quite happy and a little loopy (hm I wonder why). It was also nice to see Sandra Bullock looking very elegant and keeping her charm and wit that she always has.

Also, very elegant was Natalie Portman's acceptance speech. She looks beautiful pregnant. It seems really special to me because she is pregnant with the child of the man that she met on the set of Black Swan while she was winning the award for Best Actress for Black Swan, very cute. I wonder if she'll name her daughter Swan, or after the character in her movie. I thought it was really nice of her as well, to thank the people behind the scenes that normally don't get thanked in her acceptance speech. Someone makes her look good and it is not Natalie herself, she thanked her make-up artist and wardrobe assistants as well as the costume designer and the person, who I presume brought her coffee every morning. Nice Natalie, nice. You can watch the clip below, because what is the fun just listening to me talk about it if you can't read it for yourself?

Now that the Oscar's are over, what are we supposed to do? Well no fear kids, there is plenty to do around here. Why don't you rent that movie that you have always been dying to watch, Wag the Dog (it's actually a really epic and has a TON of political humor). You could play with your dog maybe? Or cook dinner for your family, they've been dying to have that roasted pork loin again that you cooked last week, or maybe that's just me.


No but for real, there is a lot of stuff to do around town. If you in Los Angeles, not only is there another crop of movies coming out, but there are some pretty good theatre shows going on around town. Check out The Pantages and Center Theatre Group. Jane Fonda is in a show right now called 33 Variations at Center Theatre Group, which I have heard is supposed to be quite ravishing. Until I see it for myself, I cannot give you any of my personal opinions (I know you're heartbroken), but I'll get on it as soon as I can.


I'm going out of town, so I probably won't write for a week or two, but don't worry guys, I'lll be backkkkk :) Until next time, do some laundry, because your clothes smell.

Oscar Fever

With the Oscar’s only days away—literally 10 days, can you feel it?—I’m going to give you some insight into the movies that I have seen that are nominated for roles.

First off, I want to discuss The Fighter, and why I think that Mark Wahlberg didn’t get a nomination for Best Actor when three of his costars (Melissa Leo, Christian Bale and Amy Adams) were all nominated for their performances. It is my belief that Mark Wahlberg had the best intentions when approaching his character in the movie; however, unlike the other three actors which I previously mentioned (hopefully you were paying attention), he didn’t take his acting to a deeper level. He embodied on the surface what it meant to be Micky Ward. He was physically fit after training for months, he executed the timid and shyness of the character, but he did not embody what it meant to be Micky Ward. It seemed to me that he did not discover for himself where that shyness came from and that is what made is performance ineffective. Wahlberg didn’t know for himself where his actions were driven from and therefore the audience couldn’t discover where his actions were coming from.

Adams, Bale and Leo were so deeply committed to their roles and their characters that their performances deeply impacted and affected the audiences who went to see the movie. Their motivations, actions and intentions were all genuinely cultivated within themselves, making their performances truth.

When you contrast Wahlberg’s performance to that of Colin Firth’s in The King’s Speech the difference is extraordinary. (By the way, Firth just recieved a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, obviously the most important tell of achievement in Hollywood) In Firth’s interview on Inside the Actor’s Studio, which comes in four parts, he recounts his process of undertaking the role of King George. Firth didn’t try to mimic the physical stutter of the King, yet he discovered for himself where the stutter psychologically came from. He recoutns lines from Beckett "I can't go on; I must go on; I'll go on," this is the process that Firth believes King George went through when he had to overcome the dreadful silences he was led to by his stutter. Firth dissected the actions of the king and generated genuine feelings when preparing for the role that came out onscreen and led him to be nominated for Best Actor, an award which I believe he will win.

There are so many categories that I have absolutely no idea who will win, there are just too many good candidates (which I guess is a great problem to have). Two of the Oscar’s that I am most looking forward to are for Directing and Best Writing in an Original Screenplay.

There were just so many good nominees this year. You can check out the list of nominees, if you haven’t already, which I really hope you have, here. Once the award show has been broadcast, on February 27^th (please tell me you’ve already written this date in your calendar), I will take a look back at the winners and try to offer a little insight, because I know you all are dying for a path into my brain.

Until next time, grab an umbrella because it has been dreadfully rainy here the past couple of days.