Hey Everyone, welcome back to another episode of Breakin’ In!
This week, Cheryl and I chat about the last of the “awards movies” and how it went at the Golden Globes. We also chat about the “ho-humness” of the year for movies and more importantly, the depressing year of Oscar screeners.
The song this week is Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” because… well… it just seemed fitting. Now… OFF TO THE SHOW! Enjoy…
Put some cheese on that cracker!
Breakin' In! 
YES! THANK YOU MANNY! I agree with you completely on both counts: That it was a very lackluster year for movies, and that A:OC is worthless!
In fact, I’ve been rather outspoken (perhaps to my detriment) ever since the original production here in Chicago that the underlying play wasn’t very good; it was only the performances and direction that made it seem (to some) so good.
But, as you noted, heightened acting is much harder to pull off on film, and without that heightened, closed-in, live feel, there’s little left in the play to hold one’s interest.
Regarding movies in general this year, so far the only thing I’ve seen that is very good was from a couple of years ago: “Winter’s Bone”. (And I think someday I will be able to look back at it as a life-changing event… but more on that if/when it happens.)
In any case, it’s the first movie in a long time that made me say, as you said, “yes, that’s why I want to make movies”. And it was a on a totally different budget level than any before (original 1977 Star Wars, Groundhog Day, Braveheart, etc.)
But since no movies that were released in 2013 really did it for me I didn’t bother to watch the “Golden Globes”. (Not to mention that literally half the time is taken up with commercials or watching people walk from their seat to the stage.)
Or at least I THOUGHT I didn’t have anything to root for… but the next day I was so happy to read that Alex Ebert had won for his score for “All is Lost” as I am a huge “Magnetic Zeroes” fan!
A few more thoughts:
Glad to hear you think so many movies were too long as well. It is extra ironic that at the same time the powers that be are trying so hard to get people to pay to see movies in theaters that they are giving them yet another reason (the need for bathroom breaks without missing anything) not to!
I can’t for the life of me understand how “Her” could be good, even though everyone keeps saying so. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a smart phone. (Nor do I understand how they can make love… is there a plug-in accessory of some kind?) I guess when it gets to the omes to $1 DVD rental I’ll try to watch it and see what all the fuss is.
I also thought Captain Phillips was a somewhat unbelievable. But the worst part was finding out that in real life the captain could have easily avoided the whole thing if he had just stayed further out from shore in the recommended path rather than risk going closer to shore to make the trip faster! What a jerk! (Guess Hanks wouldn’t have signed up for a movie called “Captain Phillips: What a jerk!”)
Have you hard the rumor that “Blue Jasmin” was (another) attempt by Woody to cast Mia in a negative light? Were the parallel’s to Mia’s attempts to destroy Woody’s reputation after he got involved with her adopted 19-year-old daughter as clear as some have said? (And some say Hannah and her sisters is about Mia and all of the kids.) I was a huge Woody fan as a kid, but I think “Bullets over Broadway” was probably the last one I really liked. Even “Midnight in Paris” didn’t do much for me. (Probably because I’d already learned in my life the lesson that the character learns in the end, and to enjoy the movie you really have to not have already learned that lesson.)
I don’t understand even spending two hours on “Wolf of Wall Street”, much less three. It’s like we’re supposed to enjoy the way these people spend their (ill-gotten) money. To me, “Goodfellas” was more of a documentary, where I really learned how these people lived… and died.