This morning, the 79th Academy Awards nominations were announced, and I have to say, at the risk of sounding like the biggest geek ever, I just
live for this stuff. I love good films (though my taste in movies have been questioned) and great performances and all that jazz, so I really love awards season. It starts with all the Critics Awards in late December, then we have the Golden Globes (as fun as they can be, I have no respect for them or the 90-so members that make up the Hollywood Foreign Press), the Producers Guild Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, then of course, the Oscars. I love making predictions and analyzing who got nominated/won and who didn't and why.
Of course, it wouldn't be the Oscars without a few surprises. The biggest one was the Best Picture snub of Dreamgirls, even though it garnered 8 noms in total. Instead of the movie some people considered a lock-in for the coveted Best Picture nom, my favorite movie of 2006, and quite possibly ever, made the cut.
So, may I introduce, the Little Picture That Could,
Little Miss Sunshine. The love that I have for this film knows no bounds, and I have the battle scars to prove it. I seriously tried to watch this film 4 times before I actually ended up seeing it. The first three were free screenings that the studio was doing in the weeks before the release (one in Boston, two in NYC), and the fourth was the misfortune of arriving late to a just-sold-out show on the night of its wide release. Not to mention the many many people I dragged along on any one of those screening attempts. But I finally watched it in the theater with a packed audience in a row filled with just my friends, and I can honestly say it was the best movie going experience I ever had. I was kind of nervous that most of my friends were there, just because I had talked up the movie SO much, but they ended up loving it as much as I did. The laughs were plenty (howling over the SuperFreak scene with everyone else was ah-mazing) and it was $10 and two hours very well spent.
And that is why I'm so so happy that the Academy recognized this gem of a film. Quite frankly, this isn't a typical Academy Award movie, but then again, this isn't a typical indie movie by any means. It was the biggest sell at Sundance Film Festivals ever, being bought by Fox Searchlight for $10.5 million. It went on to make $86 million worldwide. A small number perhaps, compared to $200 plus grossing blockbusters, but seriously, this was a small movie made on a small budget in a small amount of time. The screenplay is near flawless (the first 10 minutes or so is a perfect example of a perfect introduction of all the characters, wrapped up in a neat montage), the acting is perfect (I love all of the performances in this film, especially Steve Carell's gay, suicidal, Proust-scholar Frank), and the whole product is a seamless blend of comedy and drama and tragedy. I could go on and on. But I won't. So, yay, Little Best Picture!*
*There's actually no way Little Miss Sunshine is actually going to win Best Picture, but the nom itself is pretty darn sweet.
Last night the girls and I went to see Catch & Release, the new romantic comedy starring Jennifer Garner, who (whom??) I have loved since ALIAS, my favorite show of all time. I think I went to see it more for her than the movie itself, because its trailer kind of makes it look like a generic, mediocre, "eh, I'll just catch this on DVD" kind of movie. Which actually, is just my kind of movie (I don't have very high standards, I guess) so never mind.
This isn't your typical boy-meets-girl, boy-and-girl-fall-in-love, boy-and-girl-encounter-conflict, and boy-and-girl-live-happily-ever-after type of romantic comedy. Jennifer Garner plays Gray, a woman who has just lost her fiancee and is attending his funeral on the day they were supposed to be married. Through the course of the movie, she discovers huge and disturbing things about him that she never knew while he was alive, and ultimately ends up discovering things about herself because of it. Of course, there's a good amount of romance involved, as she strikes up a relationship with her dead fiancee's friend Fritz (played by Timothy Olyphant, who looks like Josh Duhamel).
I can't say that a lot of the movie isn't predictable, because it is. But it's not bogged down by corny dialogue and cliche characters, which is good. All the actors were well cast (especially Kevin Smith in what could have easily been another stereotypical comic relief role), the scenery is beautiful, and it strikes a balanced tone between romance and comedy and drama. I totally could have done without the horrible editing in this one love scene between Gray and Fritz, but otherwise I was pretty pleased with the overall film and its uplifting message. Jennifer Garner has a very interesting film presence, I think. And she's completely adorable in many scenes. I have a girl-crush on her. :) 
