Movies
Growing up in Los Angeles, cars played a big part in my life. I remember my horror the first time my dad taught me to drive on an L.A. freeway. In fact, it was much like the scene in “Clueless” when Dionne tries to negotiate the freeway. But I’ve always loved a good movie car chase.
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I’m no expert on animated movies. I loved them when I was younger, but since I don’t have kids of my own, they’ve never been a priority. Until now.
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While sitting around having drinks Friday night, my friends and I started talking movies. Not a rare occurrence to be sure, but one friend suggested that if you named your favorite film by the following five directors: The Coen Brothers, Wes Anderson, Hal Ashby, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, it would tell a lot about the kind of person you were. We proceeded to do just that and had some pretty fun arguments in the process.
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There’s nothing that bugs me more than entertainment journalism outlets (this one included) who scold celebrities for the bad behavior they make their money covering. The Feb. 27 issue of Entertainment Weekly contained a column by Mark Harris called, “When Actors Attack.” It began with the line “Remember the ‘90s. That serene and dignified period and the history of celebrity meltdowns during which actors knew how to keep their misdeeds relatively private?”
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For me, getting ready for Oscar night means one thing: Indulging in Turner Classic Movies annual 31 Days of Oscar. It’s a chance to discover movies I’ve never seen before, such as the fantastic 1945 film, “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” which was Elia Kazan’s first feature film. TCM is also a chance to discover a great performance, such as Jack Lemmon’s Harry Stoner in a movie that feels just right for our economic climate 1973’s “Save the Tiger.”
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There’s something about Netflix that feels like a relay race. Or maybe it’s more like a game of Tetris with one movie falling naturally into the nook of another.
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“The Reader”? That was my reaction on Oscar nominations morning. Not only had I thought that “The Dark Knight” would be nominated, I honestly thought it would win. Silly me!
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Mickey Rourke’s Golden Globe acceptance featured everything I love about a good awards show speech. It was heartfelt; he seemed genuinely surprised and delighted to win; it was funny (not everyone calls their director a son of a b---h and thanks their dogs, even the dead ones); and he didn’t read from a tiny, sweat-stained piece of paper.
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New Year’s Eve is the perfect time to hope that last year studio executives made resolutions to bring us some high quality, fun films for 2009. Fingers crossed.
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End of year lists have always fascinated me. Especially best film lists. Sometimes, I will be baffled about how a film made a certain critic’s list and sometimes I will cheer that one of my favorites, one that I thought I was alone in loving, actually made the list.
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