A day at the movies, Part II, and Dress #10

 

Dress: Spense, Macy's;

Tights, sweater: Target;

Boots: Kady cognac, Target;

Red leather bag: Monique, thrifted.

How I've worn the dress before: here.

  Jeremiah, V. and I went to the Best Picture Showcase, Part II yesterday and it was so much fun! (Read my Part I recap here) Some highlights:

1) All of us won movie trivia again -- our annual streak continues. I got a question right about Walt Disney (he has the most Oscars ever), V. got a question right about the other animated movies besides "Up" being nominated for Best Picture (it was "Beauty and the Beast") and I think Jeremiah's question was about which movies have been nominated for the most Oscars ("All About Eve" and "Titanic"). I won a "Team Jacob" shirt (and even though I'm not a "Twilight" fan, I'm so rocking it) and we all won movie tickets. Yay!

2) Having V. there. In years past, Jeremiah and I have gone by ourselves and considered it our belated Valentine's Day date. This year, we invited people (Jeremiah's sister came last week, and V. came this week) and I think it was a lot more fun because we had another person there to discuss the movies. 

3) We also brought Sprinkle to watch the movies. 

  

Me and V. hanging out with Sprinkle in our super-stealth theater photo. For the record, her favorite Best Picture-nominated movies were "Avatar" (because the aliens are blue like her) and "Up" (because it had lots of animals and balloons).

4) Eating delicious popcorn and Coke Zero during the day, and having a pretty healthy Panera salad for dinner to make up for the gluttony.

About my outfit. Like last week, I wanted to wear something colorful, cheerful and comfortable for 12 hours of movie watching, so I wore this dress. It held up throughout the day and didn't produce any wrinkles, which made me happy.

Here are my thoughts on the movies we saw. Again, I won't give away any spoilers, but just the main bits of the plot.

1) "Up": This was probably my favorite movie of the day. Carl Fredricksen and his wife Ellie dreamed of having an adventurous life and one day moving to Paradise Falls, an exotic locale that reminded them of the explorations of their favorite pilot, Charles Muntz (a Charles Lindbergh-like character). The mishaps of life get in the way of Carl's and Ellie's dreams, and faced with living in a retirement home, Carl decides to make the trip to Paradise Falls with his house and thousands of balloons. Partnered with Russell, a young Japanese American Boy Scout-like character, and several animals they meet, Carl embarks on a new life adventure. Many of the scenes seemed to pay tribute to classic movies like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Wizard of Oz." This movie is poignant, incredibly sad, hopeful and possibly the funniest animated movie I've ever seen. It made feel inspired about my own life. Please go see it. It's amazing.

2) "A Serious Man": I had no idea what this movie was about before getting into it -- I kept confusing it with Tom Ford's "A Single Man" and kept thinking I would see Colin Firth's performance (he's up for Best Actor). No. This is a  Coen brothers film about the terrible, unexplainable things that can happen in life. The movie is about Larry Gopnik, a Jewish professor in 1960s Midwestern suburbia whose life just seems to get worse with every moment: his lawyer bills keep piling up, he's awaiting his tenure decision, his wife wants a divorce and his apathetic children only seem to care about television shows and date nights. On top of all that, Larry can't seem to get an appointment with the most revered rabbi in town for guidance. The movie was really good -- the plot, the dialogue, costumes and cinematography were great. Many religious themes crept up in the movie. I loved it, and like a Coen brothers movie, the plot and the ending are unpredictable.  Michael Stuhlbarg did an amazing job as Gopnik.

3) "The Hurt Locker": I had many expectations for this movie, as it's supposedly one of the frontrunners for the Best Picture Oscar. The movie centers around an American military bomb disarmament squad and the many perils they face in the Iraqi war. The action scenes and the dialogues are amazing -- this movie does not let you relax at all. At one point in the movie I had to tell myself, "It's just a movie, if any of the characters die, it'll be okay because you'll see them at the Oscars tomorrow." It was seriously that intense. However, there were some parts of the movie that made me want a little more: what the motivations were for the characters to go into war, and what their home lives were like and how the war affected their psyches. Overall, it was a great movie.

4) "An Education": I had high hopes for this movie because of the buzz and acclaim from the blogosphere. Carey Mulligan stars as Jenny, a 16-year-old British girl who begins a relationship with a suave, mysterious much older man in this coming-of-age drama. He introduces her to an exciting, glamorous world of art and parties that is at odds with her studious goals of getting into college. Carey Mulligan was fantastic as Jenny and she's up for a Best Actress Oscar. Peter Sarsgaard did really well as David, Jenny's older lover, and I loved Alfred Molina as Jenny's father Jack (he also played Doctor Octavious/Doc Ock in "Spiderman 2"). The costumes were incredible -- the patterns and cuts of the pieces (especially when Jenny dons more grownup frocks) were very glamorous, beautiful and 1960s. I want every single dress Jenny wears. One part of the movie that I wish could have been explained more were David's motivations/home life, but overall it was a great movie.

5) "District 9": I had no expectations for this movie before watching it -- I thought it would be a cop thriller. The movie is about a present-day Earth in which an alien species becomes stranded after their mothership loses one of its key pieces and they can't be transported home. As their mothership hovers above Johannesburg, South Africa, many of the aliens adjust to living on Earth. Stuck with a million otherworldly inhabitants, the humans react by trying to enforce sanctions upon the aliens and put them into camps to control their behavior. I liked this movie -- it was a great thriller and I thought it was very accurate with how humans would react if an alien race suddenly became stranded on Earth. The way many of the aliens were treated was very similar to the Japanese-American internment during WWII. Overall I loved it, and I think it's possible for a sequel.

Overall, the Showcase was a wonderful experience this year. I think it's been rather difficult for me to describe which ones were my favorites, because with so many genres, it feels hard to compare. If I had to rank them from my most to least favorites, it would go like this:

1) Inglourious Basterds

2) Up

3) Avatar/Hurt Locker

4) An Education

5) Up in the Air

6) A Serious Man

7) District 9

8) Precious

9) The Blind Side

I'm about to watch Oscars coverage -- hope you all have a wonderful night!

 

10 down, 35 to go.

Pin It