Three On Thursday

January 3, 2019 By Carole

The week after Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. I love hanging out at home, I love having no lists of things I have to cook or bake or wrap, I love that Dale is off but that he spends some time pursuing his own hobbies so that I get plenty of alone time, and I love that we often make time for the movies.

Guess how many we saw last week? I’ll give you a hint. Today is Thursday . . .

Yep! We saw three! And I swear I didn’t do that on purpose but I’m awfully glad it worked out that way so that I can blog about them today.

BlacKklansman We really enjoyed this one. It’s provocative and timely despite the fact that it’s based on events that took place in the 1970s. The ending is particularly moving and, while there is a layer of satire to the whole thing it’s ultimately a frightening commentary on racism in America.
Mary Poppins Returns This one is utterly delightful and not to be missed. I smiled through the entire movie, I think. I was a bit skeptical, being a hardcore fan of Julie Andrews, but I found this to be charming and fresh with a few well placed nods to the original movie. In other words, it’s practically perfect in every way.
Bohemian Rhapsody This film, as you may suspect, follows the life of Freddie Mercury and the band Queen. The reviews are mixed but I thought it was great. Dale especially loved it, in particular because of his work with a band for over 45 years now. Rami Malek’s performance is at the heart of this one and his delivery of Freddie Mercury’s talent, loneliness and recklessness are on point.

We’ve got more we’re planning to see soon: Vice, The Favourite, Roma and more but we’re off to a good start on our Oscar quest, particularly since we’ve already seen A Star is Born and that seems to be favored in nearly every category.

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Three On Thursday, But Not Really

March 1, 2018 By Carole

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Three On Thursday to share this post on a very timely subject . . .

You know what’s coming up this Sunday, right? It’s THE OSCARS! Yes! All the months of movie going and popcorn eating and list keeping are finally coming to a conclusion with this glorious day that’s all about the movies. Well, and the fashion. But mostly the movies and I love me the movies.

I have seen all of the best picture nominated films as well as The Big Sick, I, Tonya, and Mudbound and I plan to see The Florida Project by Sunday. I have seen all but one of the best actor nominated performances and two out of five of the best supporting actor performances. I have seen all of the best nominated actress and supporting actress performances. And that’s a lot of movie watching!

Here’s my ranking of the Best Picture Nominated Films, from most to least favorite.

The Shape of Water
Darkest Hour
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MO
The Post
Lady Bird
Call Me By Your Name
Get Out
Phantom Thread
Dunkirk

The prediction of a Best Picture win is rough this year. Some critics are predicting a win for the outlier Get Out but most come down to choosing either The Shape of Water or Three Billboards. I’m going to hope for The Shape of Water to win but I won’t be surprised if it’s Three Billboards instead.

I didn’t see all of the Best Actor performances but even without seeing them all I can’t imagine anyone could have done a better job than Gary Oldman did with Winston Churchill in The Darkest Hour. I often think it’s more difficult to recreate a well known personality than it is to create a character from scratch (think Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles and Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash) and Oldman portrayed Churchill beautifully. Timothee Chalamet is very good in Call Me By Your Name and Daniel Kaluuya is terrific in Get Out. Daniel Day-Lewis is okay in Phantom Thread but it’s not like his performance as Lincoln and so I come back to Oldman every time.

I’m torn between Richard Jenkins from The Shape of Water and Woody Harrelson from Three Billboards for the performance I think is most deserving of the Best Supporting Actor award. They both gave great performances of very unique characters. Woody Harrelson’s voice overs are wonderful and heart breaking and Richard Jenkins’ misunderstood, bumbling artist who rises to the role of hero is fabulous.

All of the Best Actress nominees are excellent. My wish is for Sally Hawkins (Shape of Water) to win because, really, she gave an amazing performance without speaking but I have a feeling Frances McDormand will be taking home the statue on Sunday night. She is wonderful as the angry, vengeful and resourceful mother in Three Billboards. Meryl Streep is epic in The Post but I can’t say that the role felt like a stretch for her. Margot Robbie is crass and funny in I, Tonya and Saoirse Ronan is truly believable as a teenager with angst in Lady Bird and, even though Sally Hawkins is my favorite, my money is on McDormand.

My pick for Best Supporting Actress is a tough one because I think Allison Janney in I, Tonya and Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird are both fabulous as misunderstood mothers who have difficult relationships with their daughters. My personal choice is Laurie Metcalf because I think her character’s heart is in the right place, at least, but I think Janney has a lock on this win. Octavia Spencer is a great sidekick to Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water but it was like watching her in The Help all over again. Lesley Manville is creepy and weird in Phantom Thread but that whole movie is creepy and weird and Mary J. Blige in Mudbound didn’t do much for me – that whole movie didn’t really do much for me, in fact.

And there you have it – my summation of the major categories for The Oscars. Now that the movie watching is out of the way it’s time to start planning the party!

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Movie Season Is Here!

November 7, 2016 By Carole

Sundays around here are generally for football. But. The Pats had a bye week and that left us with a free Sunday. In November. You know what that means?

Movie time.

Yes, my friends, movie season is here. The time to go the theater and see the movies that are likely to be nominated for an award. Kym sent me this list and I think it’s a good place to start. And that’s why, yesterday, Dale and I went to see The Girl on the Train.

It was good. Not great. But good. And here’s the thing (you know what I’m going to say, right?) The book was better. Way better. And Dale, who hadn’t read the book, was a little bit lost during some parts. It all came together during the last 3rd of the movie but it was a little messy getting to that point. Emily Blunt, though, was fantastic, and totally deserves an Oscar nomination.

After the movie we headed to a new-ish restaurant and had a drink (or two) and discussed the movie. It’s one of my favorite parts about going to the movies with Dale – that after part where we talk about what we watched and what we thought and what else we want to go see.

Movie season. It’s one of the things that helps me embrace shorter days and colder nights.

Weekending

February 23, 2015 By Carole

I had a weekend full of fun, really good cheese, friends, dancing, and my favorite TV event of the year, The Oscars.

Here’s the thing with the cheese – we went to a cheese tasting sponsored by a local food group. It was great and I learned so much about buying cheese, storing cheese, and what kinds of cheeses I like. Okay, that might be all the cheese but still, I learned a lot and my new favorite cheese is Oma by the Von Trapp Family. Yes. That Von Trapp Family.

The fun included a night out for the Dale and the Duds Valentine’s Dance. We danced and we drank and we laughed and had a really great time. It’s good for me to see Dale perform now and again, it brings back so many memories of our early years together and it reminds me why I fell in love with him in the first place. Plus, those 5 guys in the band are some of my favorite men in the world.

As if that wasn’t a great weekend already, Sunday was Oscar day. I watched E! most of the afternoon while prepping some delicious food for us, including the wedge salad bites pictured above. We also had buffalo shrimp and cheeseburger sliders and, of course, champagne.

I had seen all of the Best Picture nominees this year and I enjoyed them all. I loved Imitation Game best of all and I also thought Grand Budapest Hotel, Theory of Everything, Whiplash and Selma were fantastic. American Sniper was terrific and Boyhood was good but a bit too long for me. As for Birdman, well, I just didn’t get it.

And of course, that won Best Picture. I knew it was coming, though, so I was prepared. And I was glad to see Grand Budapest Hotel pick up awards in other categories, Whiplash got some great attention, Selma won Best Song and the performance by John Legend & Common left everyone crying, Eddie Redmayne won for Theory of Everything and American Sniper picked up some technical awards. While I wasn’t super crazy about Patricia Arquette in Boyhood, her acceptance speech was fantastic and empowering – equal pay for women! YES! And J.K. Simmons gave an excellent acceptance speech and reminded everyone to call their parents. (I would if I could and I sure wish I could, Mr. Simmons.)

Neil Patrick Harris did a great opening number and the addition of Anna Kendrick and Jack Black made it even better. After that, though, I thought he fell flat. His jokes weren’t very good and the thing in his underwear (yes, I know it was a Birdman reference but meh) just wasn’t funny even if he is hot. Lady Gaga was amazing in her Sound of Music tribute although I found whatever that was she was doing with her dress to be distracting.

As for the fashion: Rosamund Pike, yes; Julianne Moore, no; Patricia Arquette, yes to the dress and no to the hair; Reese Witherspoon, maybe: J.Lo, OH YES; Emma Stone, no, Naomi Watts, yes, Felicity Jones, yes, Anna Kendrick, YES, Lupita Longo, yes (although I wondered what it was like to sit down on all those pearls).

Those are the highlights for me for this year’s Oscar show. Did you watch? What did you love and, even more important, what did you hate? And for those of you who don’t watch the Oscars, shocking as that may be, how was your weekend?

Oscar Night 2013

February 28, 2013 By Carole

I love the movies. I love to go the movies, I love to watch movies at home. I love the stars that work so hard to entertain us. It stands to reason, therefore, that I love Oscar night – it’s the biggest TV event of the year for a movie lover like me. And you know, we kind of get into it over at my house. I make food that represents each of the Best Picture nominees, we play Oscar bingo, we drink champagne and (sometimes) dress up and I really enjoy the whole night.

This year’s show did not disappoint me at all. I know there have been mixed reviews of Seth MacFarlane’s hosting performance but I thought he was funny and that opening was one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Sure, he was crass and some of the jokes were in poor taste but, well, have you seen Ted? No one should be surprised by any of this. And honestly, I’m going to watch the show to the bitter end whether I like the job the host is doing or not because I love the movies. I managed to stick with the entire show when Ann Hathaway and James Franco did it back in 2011, after all, and I can’t picture anyone doing a worse job than they did.

Anyway.

The fashion is always a big part of the show for me and I thought the choices of many of the stars this year were terrific. Jessica Chastain, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, Amanda Seyfried and Sally Field all nailed it, in my world. Anne Hathaway? Not so much. I will say, though, that I miss the days before stylists as we just don’t see the Red Carpet disasters we used to see. Remember Bjork?

I was also pretty happy with the distribution of awards. Dale was quite disappointed that Lincoln didn’t win for Best Picture but I honestly think that Daniel Day Lewis winning Best Actor for his portrayal of Lincoln is all that really mattered. Sure, I would have loved to see Sally Field win Best Supporting Actress because, really Anne Hathaway sang a song, but still, I’m okay with that. I loved Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty and thought she gave twice the performance Jennifer Lawrence did in Silver Linings Playbook but the post win interviews with Jennifer Lawrence are fantastic and that alone makes me happy that she won. And I’m glad that Argo won for Best Picture. I’m not sure it was my favorite as I truly enjoyed all of this year’s nominated films, but I think the win was deserved.

And finally, here’s the stuff you really want to see: the food I prepared.

Sushi for Life of Pi. I know, it’s a stretch but poor Pi had to eat raw fish while he was on that raft so sushi made it to our menu. Plus, if Wolfgang Puck can serve it to the stars then I can serve it to my family.

We had red white and blue fruit kabobs in the design of the American flag for Lincoln. No one ate in this movie so it wasn’t easy coming up with this one. Work with me here, people.

There was baked brie for Amour and a baguette to go along with it for Les Miserables. Not pictured but also delicious was hummus for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, crabby snacks (of course!) for Silver Linings Playbook – I figured those could also represent Beasts of the Southern Wild since they ate a bunch of crab in that movie – and white cake for Django Unchained. That white cake actually fell apart when I took it from the cake pan so I made it into parfaits instead, complete with raspberries to represent all the damn blood in that movie.

And there you have it, my summation of Oscar Night 2013. I can’t wait to do it all again next year!