narrative landscape

The semester just starting to pick up, but things aren't busy enough that Ami and I can't still hang out a good bit. Lately we've watched two interesting (and very different) movies. The first was the new Willy Wonka movie. I've never seen the first one, so I really can't compare the two (and didn't have huge expectations for it, either), but I ended up really enjoying it. It's directed by Tim Burton and Willy is played by Johnny Depp, which is really the perfect combination for this kind of movie. We saw the two of them team up on the Legend of Sleepy Hollow sometime in the last year, but Willy Wonka is a lot better. Overall, the movie was a lot of fun--good script, good acting, good music (and pretty family friendly, too). The other movie we watched recently was In America, which was released a few years ago. It's about an Irish family (mom and dad, two young daughters) who moves to America and tries to make it in New York as well as grieve for the recent death of their son. Again, a very well acted and directed movie. The movie centers on the struggles of Johnny, the Irish father, to let go of his son...as a new father with my own son, watching this was a lot more difficult than it would have been a year ago. Anyhow, both movies are highly recommended.

It's not like I've ever watched the Oscars much before now, but I'm making a point not to anymore, especially after the nominations this year. What's really sickened me about it before is how it's just a chance for all the hollywood celebrities who already think they're the center of the universe sit around and tell each other how wonderful and talented and profound they are and this year they'll be doing that as well as bending over backwards to say how wonderful and profound a movie about men who destroy the lives of their wives and families because they just can't stop having sex together is. Thanks but no thanks. I'm a pretty open-minded guy when it comes to movies (heck, when Ami was gone in VA, I watched "Angels in America" and enjoyed it), and I'm sure Brokeback Mtn. is a well-done movie, but I can't stomach sitting around and being told how wonderful it is, what a great love story it is, etc. If Brokeback was being promoted as a movie about the awful effects of sin on people and the consequences for indulging your lusts, then I probably wouldn't mind even seeing it. That's actually why I liked Angels in America. But everything I've heard about it so far is that it's supposed to be a "love" story, and it's certainly not that.