grapes

It’s Oscar season, similar to Open season, harvest season, and holiday season. It’s the season where my mom pokes me as we watch awards shows and whispers, “Next time I’ll hear, ‘And the winner is…Grapes!’” She doesn’t say “Grapes” but for Internet safety, you understand. And it all gets very awkward but you know that secretly, under my Little Bobby exterior, I am secretly thrilled to be mentioned in such circumstances.

You can say you don’t want to act or direct for fame, but no one can deny fame has its benefits, along with all the paparazzi and fan mobs and massive amounts of fanmail and extreme scrutiny.

Since this year’s award shows promise to be quite the slight bore because of all the unknowns and the lack of a Johnny Depp movie to root for, (they could save it with some very good jokes and many appearances of Johnny Depp and/or Geoffrey Rush and/or some other PotC dude – not Keira Knightley/Orlando Bloom) I cannot post reviews about each aspect and say who I want to or stealthily know will win.

Also: Dakota Fanning is going to maybe be in the “Twilight” sequel!?!?!?!??! I don’t know whether to not care or slightly cry. Why would you be excited about that? She is. What slightly bothers me more is Yahoo’s use of “Dakota’s New Grownup Role” as the title. Yes, because “Twilight” is so mature.

I’ve got half a mind to tell you an informed post about each of these movies, but I’m feeling lazy and you can get that elsewhere. Starting with Original Screenplay. I haven’t seen any of these movies except WALL-E, so I’m just going to write about whatever comes to mind.

The nominees are: Frozen River, Happy-Go-Lucky, In Bruges, Milk, and WALL-E.

Let’s begin with “Frozen River”. Here’s the synopsis on oscar.com:

“Abandoned by her husband, Ray is left to raise their two sons in a broken-down trailer. When her efforts to buy a new home for her boys lead her to the brink of financial ruin, she allows herself to be drawn into a dangerous smuggling ring operating across the U.S.-Canadian border.”

For some reason, the combination of “Frozen River” and “Milk” in the same list reminds me of a frozen river of milk. Smacking myself now for such a stupid observation. I’ve never heard of this movie and have no idea  what it’s about. If I made a movie called “Frozen River”, it would be either a horrific drama about a little girl frozen in the river of a small town, or about someone who is emotionally frozen. See how unoriginal I am. By golly, is that an Asian woman in that picture? Huzzah.

When I first heard of “Happy-Go-Lucky”, I really really wanted to see it. That was the beginning last year, and I sensed that it wouldn’t be released where I could see it.  But then the Golden Globes came around and the leading actress kind of drunkenly thanked people, and I lost much interest. Still…it’s interesting.

“Poppy, a London schoolteacher, lives her life with a cheerful optimism that never wavers in the face of problems or setbacks. When her bicycle is stolen, she begins driving lessons with the angry, fiercely repressed Scott, while her concerns for the welfare of a young boy in her class lead to her meeting with a likeable social worker who is drawn to her open-hearted approach to the world.”

By the way, Poppy is the name of that mouse in the book “Poppy and Rye”, which I used to love because I liked that kind of thing. “The Littles”, stories about ants, pretending to be small and living in little crevices of human dwellings fascinated me.

“In Bruges” is another one that I was interested in, around the same time.

“Two Irish hitmen find themselves with time on their hands in the Belgian city of Bruges. Ken and Ray have been ordered to the medieval town to await a phone call from their boss, Harry, following a botched hit, and while the inexperienced Ray chafes at the inactivity, Ken takes advantage of the situation to play tourist.”

It seemed like it would be a really good insight into Bruges, like one of those movies that are more fangirl displays to cities than storytelling. Which I don’t mind. If I made a movie about Belgium, it would include as many shots of the peeing boy fountain as possible. Amanda can testify to my fascination with him. Our sixth grade Belgium project was covered with him. I stealthily snuck him into every aspect, our postcards, travel brochures, tickets. Probably the beginning of stealthily sneaking references into English essays.

“Milk”.

“As the emerging Gay Pride movement gathers force in the 1970s, it finds a champion and a public face in San Francisco camera store owner Harvey Milk.  Leaving his closeted life in New York behind, Milk moves to California with his lover and soon turns his efforts to politics, campaigning for a spot on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors–a quest that will make him the country’s first openly gay man to be elected to public office.”

This movie, I strongly suspect, is one of those movies where the director wants to raise awareness for a cause, most likely through telling a historical inspirational story. It’s not that interesting in terms of being different, but I guess I could give it a try. Sean Penn looks awesomely unlike himself, bordering on what the Joker might look like w/out makeup and with a narrower jaw.

I saw WALL-E with Amanda’s family sans Amanda this summer. Afterwards we went to Coldstones and ate ice cream that was too big. I failed at ordering there too, taking almost half an hour to decide. It was cute, but it was way too long ago for me to gush. Thinking back, it was one cute movie building up to a greatly propagandish ending.

“Several centuries in the future, when human beings have abandoned the earth for a series of orbiting spaceships, the lone remaining being on the planet is a solar-powered robot named WALL-E. As he continues to carry out his trash compacting duties, he gathers up unexpected treasures…including a tiny green plant that has somehow reappeared on the earth’s heavily polluted landscape.”

Taking WALL-E’s lead,

SAVE THE POLAR BEARS.

No, seriously.