Final Film Footnotes from 2012

In the Theatre: 

• Lincoln (with Cindy at Wehrenberg) – Wow, Daniel Day Lewis was amazing.  He WAS Lincoln.  It was an interesting story about the politics around the passage of the 13th Amendment.  Definitely worth seeing – and probably seeing again when it comes out on DVD!
• Les Miserables (with Marissa, Cindy and her friend Andrea at Winona 7 Dec 26) – Wow, again.  It was a great capture of the Broadway musical with very powerful performances.  There were tears, there were laughs (seriously? Sasha Baron Cohn?), and there was a little singing along.

Netflix Streaming/On-Demand:

• Brief Interviews with Hideous Men – A grad student tries to figure out where she has gone wrong romantically while doing her research interviews with a variety of men to hear their confessions.  Meh.  Not bad. Not good.  Fine for cooking in the kitchen!
• Sleepwalk with Me  – Re-watched this – saw it On Demand.  Good story about a stand-up comedian who sleepwalks – dangerously – and avoids discussions of importance.
• The Fitzgerald’s Family Christmas  – Edward Burns made another movie ala The Brothers McMullen – set in Brooklyn, family drama, good characters.  This time a dad asks to be allowed to have his last Christmas with his estranged wife and their children.  So many siblings!  So much drama!  Such good stuff!

Netflix DVDs:

• Damsels in Distress  – I unfortunately didn’t pay too much attention to this. I was looking forward to it but it didn’t grab me.  May have been more about the circumstances (pre-Christmas busy-ness) or the B&W TV that I was watching it on, but it wasn’t captivating.  Was just ok.
• The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – A re-watch.  So good and fun.
• Seeking a Friend for the End of the World  – Pretty disappointing.  I am not a sci-fi or dystopia fan, so watching people prepare for the inevitable end of the world was not very fun.  I suppose it could be interesting to think about – how would you act? who would you seek out? where would you go?  But it didn’t pull me in that much… I may have been distracted by other things (work!) but it was just ok.
• Big Miracle (with Mom, Dad and Marissa on Christmas Eve) – based on a true story about 3 grey whales who are stuck in the ice off the Alaska coast.  They are migratory animals who need to get to CA.  To get them out of the ice or harvest them for food?  The small town becomes overrun by media and activitists and the President eventually asks for Russian assistance.  Loved the actual footage that was shown during the movie and during the credits.  I was a little preoccupied in 1989 so I don’t really remember this happening, but it was a good story!

Christmas Views:

• Love, Actually – Watched while decorating. Such a great movie.

  

• Elf – Always makes me guffaw
• The Holiday – A fun one every year
• The Family Stone – Gets me every time!
• The Holiday Affair (TCM recording) – oldie with Robert Mitchum playing the romantic lead. He’s unemployed and gives a widow’s son an expensive train for Christmas.  He’s going to stay in town long enough to make money to get to CA, but the widow’s new fiance can tell that they’re in love and encourages her to convince him to stay.  Hmm.  Silly holiday movie.

And now, we’re in 2013.  January 1 and one movie down!  Silver Linings Playbook!  Sooooo good!  And another will be seen on January 3 –  This is 40. Can’t wait!  Will write more about these and others that I can’t wait to see later!

Happy New Year!

Related articles

• Edward Burns’ latest film has ‘the smallest carbon footprint’ (mnn.com)
• Top 10 Christmas Movies to Watch Again (mindseyenewspaper.wordpress.com)
• Top five: films for Christmas (thisgirlfridayreviews.wordpress.com)
• Favourite Christmas Movies (poppytailsandtrails.com)
• Christmas Movies (theminorproject.wordpress.com)
• Ed Burns and Connie Britton together again in ‘The Fitzgerald Family Christmas’ – EXCLUSIVE ONE SHEET (insidemovies.ew.com)
• 25 Days of Christmas: Holiday Affair (1949) (journeysinclassicfilm.com)
• Holiday Affair (marsellasbookends.wordpress.com)