Best Dressed: Keira Knightley
Worst Dressed: Everyone else
Hey everyone, It's been a decade. Or so it seems. But I did have a baby, so that's my big excuse. I've been doing more posting on Sam's blog these days, so if you want to check that out send me an email or post a comment to this post and I'll link you to it.
Anyway, there have been many entries that I've wanted to write. My reading, tv-watching and movie-going have all suffered in the past five months, but that doesn't mean I've totally been out of touch. In fact, I did get some good tv watching in many an early morning while feeding Sam thanks to my ever trusty replayer. And what I found were two stellar new shows. I should have blogged on them ages ago, as they're both on hiatus now, but you can probably catch them on line or eventually on dvd.
So why am I posting on this now? The Golden Globes of course! My fav awards show was cancelled this year due to that bedeviling writer's strike. So that means there's no chance for me to make fun of people's speeches and even better - their dresses. Instead, I got to scour the web for the list of winners. What I found was great news. These two shows I discovered this summer were somehow also loved by those madcap foreign press people: Mad Men (best drama and best dramatic actor) and Damages. If you have not seen either, I have to pity you. Mad Men especially is the show of the year. It's set in an ad agency in 1960 and it follows adman Don Draper, his coworkers and their spouses. The show's stellar performances and meticulous eye for detail impressed me so much I forced Thomas to watch it, and he was an instant convert as well. Easily the best thing that's been on tv in the past 5 years (except for The Wire). The question of Who is the Real Don Draper was tv's most compelling mystery.
Damages centers around one case in a high-powered law practice owned by Glenn Close. The firm represents a group of workers who lost all of their pensions at their Enronesque company headed by Ted Danson. The twists and turns and complications are too much for me to go into, but the cast and writing are great and I never knew where the script was going. I can tell you that I was very wary of this show because I am SICK TO DEATH of shows about lawyers (David Kelly should be banned from penning their stories at this point), but Damages' focus on one very complex case made lawyers fresh again and never ever boring. Anyway, Close won Best Dramatic Actress. So yeah for her! I wasn't really interested in any of the other winners, though Rose Byrne was screwed for not winning Best Supporting Actress in a Drama series (for Damages).
As for movies, I have seen a few - including this year's winner, Atonement. I read McEwan's novel a few years ago when it was all the rage and remember being disappointed in it. So much so that I've yet to check out his other raved about novel Saturday. The first half of Atonement was to die for. I was on the edge of my seat loving everything from the costumes to the exquisite Keira and her freakly little sis. Then the second half felt like a silent movie to me and I was bored silly. So bored that I have to admit I dozed at some point. Hugely embarrasing, but true. The darkness of the movie theatre seduced me. So I could just not ever justify giving top honors to a movie I couldn't stay awake for.
Others I've seen:
The Great Debaters - true story which always helps. Interesting and inspiring. Denzel and Forest were great.
Superbad - I'm ashamed to say this was Sam's first movie. Seen at far too young an age. I'm not sure what effect this will have on him, but Thomas and I really enjoyed it. Thomas more than me because let's face it, it is definitely aimed at guys. But as a girl, I still thought it was really funny when not being too gross
Golden Compass - I read all three of these books and this one was my fav of the series. I LOVED this movie! So many people have slammed it. I just don't get it. I thought it was magical, interesting, CG was awesome and it left me wanting more. This was definitely a better movie than the first Narnia book was as a movie. Don't get me wrong - I love Narnia, but the movie was disappointing. I wasn't disappointed for a second by Golden Compass. Loved all the casting from Kidman to Craig to Eva Green to the perfectly-cast Sam Elliot as Texan Lee Scoresby.
American Gangster - another true story ( both this and Debaters were inspired by magazine articles). Saw this one with Jen and we were both a little disappointed that they didn't expand the ending some more. This could have been the most interesting part of the story but it was glossed over. Still, great performances from Denzel and Russell Crowe (worst haircut ever!). I was never bored even though the movie was almost 3 hrs. Guess that's partly due to Ridley Scott's directing.
Beowulf - This movie is a good literary lesson for those of us who have zero desire to go back and read Beowulf. The motion-capture animation bugged the heck out of me though. Some people looked good (I was very annoyed that Thomas and Jess thought nothing was enhanced on Angelina) and some looked horrid (Anthony Hopkins, I'm talking to you). It didn't help that I didn't like any of the characters in the story. Beowulf is such a blowhard! It was also too long and I admit to falling asleep. Maybe this should not be a factor since I'm obviously sleep-deprived at this point in my life.
Movies I'm dying to see: Charlie Wilson's War, Juno, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, Cloverfield, Persepolis and 27 Dresses
So now the big question is will the Oscar's get cancelled too? After the last few years shows, one can only hope.
-sunday
