I love movies. I love great storytelling with interesting characters. Usually… what I do is from January 1st to February 10th or so is go to my closest theatre and binge watch a dozen movies in a three week period. Last year I actually watched four movies on the day of the Oscars. That almost killed me and I’ll never do that again as this year I was better at spreading out my movie list. In fact, a week before the show and I’m already done. It’s a ritual with me like the seasons changing. It drives my wife crazy and she rolls her eyes at me. I see every genre possible, while she’s a chick flick girl but one who’s actually the daughter of an Air Force Bird Colonel and very smart.
She’s never seen Shindler’s List or Twelve Years a Slave or the The Color Purple. “How could you not see those movies?” I ask her. She says, ” I don’t watch depressing movies. Why would I want to be depressed?” Sigh. You can guess which movies I see alone. She almost walked out of the theatre when I took her to see The Master. Dead serious.
We’ve been together for thirty-eight years and this year for only the second time in our marriage we agree on the Best Picture of the Year.
The only other time we agreed was with Four Weddings and a Funeral. She still has a thing for Hugh Grant while I’ve moved on although we both did love…Love Actually. And of course there was Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail. That was her Meg Ryan stage.
This year was very tough for me because I fell in love with two movies which I feel like are deserving of Best Picture. One is A Star is Born and the other is Green Book which I’ll feature on my blog next week. I’d feel very good if either of these movies win the Best Picture Award. I’ll do my list next Saturday with my top eight movies and how I ranked them. I’ll pick my performers awards then.
But I have to tell you, Bradley Cooper won my heart with his movie. I loved him in The Mule as well which made my list. But for me this is the Year of Bradley Cooper. He’s come a long way since Silver Linings Playbook. I have to admit he’s become one of my favorite actors.
I don’t watch much of the NBA All-Star week-end. I’ll watch Diallo in the dunk contest and probably watch the three point shooting contest and that will be it for me. Who knows…maybe I’ll watch a little rap. Probably not. I only watch two rappers…Eminem and 2pac and since neither of them are involved in this show I’ll probably pass. Isn’t it ironic that the best rapper in the world is white and rap is the music of a league completely dominated by the black athlete like in no other sport. I just find that ironic. God works in mysterious ways. Eminem has more soul in his little finger than Kevin Durant has in his entire body. Go figure.
Back to the movies. I want to play this Sam Elliott and Bradley Cooper interview because I love Sam Elliott and I’m hoping he gets to have his Oscar moment even though Mahershala Ali was superb in Green Book, but he already has one in Moonlight.
My advice is skip the NBA All-Star game and see one of these two movies if you haven’t already.