Sunday, February 27, 2011

Dear Oscar...

"Dear Oscar, I was not able to sleep because of you last night and I was up all night long."

That's from the 1996 foreign film winner of the movie, "Kolya." The speech was by Jan Sverák who had a thick accent and made the word,"Oscar" sound like Oss Kar.

Dear Oskcar, every year, it's gotten worse. I feel I am unable to sleep because of you. I must see every movie nominated. In a movie theater.

I used to only watch the Oscar nominated best pictures. Then I added the actors, then the supporting actors. In 2008, I dragged a friend on Valentine's Day to the very bloody, "Apocalypto" I dubbed it my bloody valentine. It was up for three Oscars (Make up and two sound awards) but won none of them. That was a year I crossed nearly every movie off my Oscar check list. Dear Debora, that seems kinda obsessive.

This year has been different. I have had very little interest in seeing most of the movies. I only ended up seeing only these three Best Picture nominated movies:

"The King's Speech”
“Toy Story 3”
“True Grit”

I saw, The King's Speech,” only just last night and it was the best picture winner. Today, I watched online trailers of all the nominated movies. I loved the trailer of the animation short, "The Lost Thing" so I downloaded it. It was so sweet and wonderfully done. And it won!. While I didn't download the short live action film, "God of Love," it looked adorable and it won.

My intuition was really spot on telling what would be the best movies to watch. My movie ennui actually worked in my favor. I didn't spend an inordinate amount of time watching movies that didn't win anything. And much like the little known, "Kolya", I love it when a sweet little movie wins and there's a memorable speech.

Dear Oscar, thanks for giving the awards to movies I really thought should win, for some big wins, and some small ones. Now it's late and time to go to sleep.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Ground Hog Day

Deb, you already know this. You know it by heart. You love the movie, "Groundhog Day." You quote it all the time. You mention it to friends, you understand the parables it teaches.








How many times do you mention this scene:



You've been to Punxsutawney PA and bought the above cookbook for fun and laughs and to see it every day on your shelf.

Debora. It's Groundhog Day again. Will you walk through the puddle, walk around it or find a new street? Or are you doomed to wake up again to the haunting sounds of Sonny and Cher singing, "I got you, babe." Really. You know how it will go, how it will end up. Yeah, it's got you. It makes you sick.

When are you gonna cook that Groundhog?