Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

Comment by Liz

March 5, 2006 @ 11:32 pm

Baha. I haven’t seen a single one of them either!

Comment by Aaron H

March 6, 2006 @ 2:17 pm

I voted for Crash. The best of the bunch, IMHO. I’m so excited it pulled an upset.

Brokeback Mountain is well made but it’s a bad sign when I care a lot more about the emotional lives of the people that AREN’T the main characters. Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger were GREAT but their parts were so underwritten as to be somewhat unbelievable (Jake suffered more here). I was way more interested in how the other people around them were affected.

Munich was probably my 2nd favorite overall. A couple of endings too many and a little long, but the suspense really works and a lot of serious issues were discussed. Spielberg was way too indulgent with his final – what was that? love scene? – but I can mostly forgive that. All in all, a pretty reasoned, entertaining, and balanced look at a ridiculously complex problem.

Good Night and Good Luck is about tied with Munich to me. It relied a little TOO much on the archival footage (especially given it’s shortish running time). I got the point but it did have moments of feeling more like an educational film. Still, Clooney is turning out to be an inspired director. Like with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, he did some really bold and interesting things I’d never seen before. He also got great performances out of his actors and really gave them a world to breathe in. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Brokeback would go here, but I already told you what I think about that.

Capote was the weakest of the bunch. While I learned some interesting things and there were some scenes of real electricity, it’s quite flawed and too long. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, whom I adore, does a great impression but I’m not convinced it’s great acting. I do admire the fact that they really allowed Capote to come off as he does. A very real, flawed person. Catherine Keener is kind of wasted but she’s great in the role. I wanted to see more about her.

OK, that’s it for me. Glad I watched them all last week. 🙂

If all else fails, sort them by running time.

Comment by Abby

March 6, 2006 @ 3:04 pm

My mom had only seen one of the Oscar films, and it was Crash, and she said it was excellent. I wonder if I can actually get a copy of it now, or if that’s just silly given the fact that it just won last night! Walk the Line is another film I’d like to see… Oh, and Hustle and Flow, since people in Memphis said it was too much like work to see it when I was there. But now I don’t live there, so I’m ready for a viewing. And how cool was it that the Whaddayacallit Mafia won?! I was watching slightly delayed on TiVo while surfing, so I read about that win before it happened on EJ’s blog, although I never could predict how FUN it was to see that song win. Good times! 😀

Memphis REPRESENT!

Haha. Sort by running time… Yeah, that’s really a good idea for me. Too long, and I lose interest.

Comment by Susan

March 6, 2006 @ 3:51 pm

I voted for Crash (actually-it’s the only one of the bunch I saw)-very good but it really hits you over the head-I like subtler movies but I guess alot of America needs to be hit over the head. Definitley see Hustle and Flow not becuase it’s like our work in Memphis but because it captures a segment of life in Memphis and the song is a bit raunchier in the movie-it’s a very good low-budget film.

Comment by Abby

March 6, 2006 @ 4:34 pm

Right. I think that I was a bit down and out about the Memphis down and out, but now, I think I’d find it refreshing! Plus, it seemed weird that there was so much hype all around while we were living there about that movie, but I never had any time to see movies while I lived there! Gotta rent a few movies one of these days.

Comment by downstairs-Jen

March 6, 2006 @ 7:05 pm

I think Crash well deserved the win. I saw that and Walk the Line… which was interesting. I left the theatre not entirely sure if I liked it or not, but fairly glad I’d seen it. It just seemed a bit made-for-TV for my taste.

I also really enjoyed March of the Penguins. Saw it with my family, and it was genuinely neat. But… it’s not for everyone.

Comment by Susan

March 6, 2006 @ 9:05 pm

I loved March of the Penguins, too. If you think you’ve got it rough it’ll put things in perspective 🙂

Comment by Renee

March 7, 2006 @ 9:16 am

Well, alas, I can’t help you with the poll as I’ve seen none of them myself. Oh well, they’ll all be on DVD within 6 months… Of course my parents have seen most of them.

Comment by Abby's mom

March 7, 2006 @ 1:07 pm

I wasn’t bugged so much by playing music during the speeches, but I was bugged that they actually seemed to turn off the mike when a recipient’s time was up.

Lauren Bacall looked and sounded bad, and I felt sorry for her that she was even up there.

I thought March of the Penguins was wonderful, and I DO think it is for everyone. It’s very life-affirming.

Comment by malatron

March 7, 2006 @ 9:10 pm

Ok. First time reader, so per request, I am commenting. I stumbled upon your site doing research for a post I am writing on video blogging. (for a blog I contribute at, not my own) I became more interested after I read the piece in the Boston Globe this Sunday about vlogs, and the Boston Media Matters group.

OK, with all that qualifying out of the way, I want to succinctly (hopefully) write a bit about my vote for Brokeback. I vote for it reluctantly, as I have not seen Good Night, and Good Luck, or Munich. In addition, though Brokeback spoke to me in powerful ways, it was not necessarily because of the gay theme. Which alludes to another important reason I was hesitant to vote for it as a movie you would enjoy. I found the themes of infidelity, men emotionally unavailable to their wives, and men extremely self-centered and selfish, themes which I wonder might be more apt to make woman yawn and roll their eyes with uncompassionate familiarity, rightfully so. The movie was indeed very powerful, and broke new ground for hollywood, but I question if Jack and Ennis, though gay, are really anything more than the so many emotionally mature men out there. And that is the theme that speaks to me, and that I thinks need a closer and smarter look at. Men seemingly incapable of incorporating the needs of other people in their lives in any meaningful and sincere way. Especially when those needs conflict with their own. Especially when the other person involved is a woman they carry on a relationship with, and or the childrem borne out of that.

Though these are the same men who carry deep, important, and meaningful relationships with other men, for decades. Relationships seemingly more involved and important than the ones with their own wives, or children. Men who go hunting with their male friends every week-end, but never attend their childs soccer games. Men who tell other men their inner most secrets, but who give their wives only a fraction of their same selves. Men who would gladly go to the store to buy a nother case of beer for a friend, but can’t even remember to the bring home a gallon of milk as their wife requested.

These are the men I saw when I saw when I saw Jack and Ennis, and these are the stories, and the reasons behind them, that I think should have gotten more play, and not simply chalked up to hidden and suppressed homosexual tendencies.

Comment by Dianne

March 7, 2006 @ 10:00 pm

The only movie I saw in the group was ‘Crash’ because my son had rented it. I thought it was a deep movie-one you need to watch more than once.
We are finishing up-Walk the Line. It’s pretty good-not as good as Ray from last year, but Joaquin is so handsome. Both he and Reese did excellent jobs with their acting and singing.