three sentence movies – Page 2

Planning Oscar Nominated Shorts

When the Oscar nominations were announced this year, I was very pleased that I had already watched all the films in many categories: Picture (all 10!), Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Actress, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Costume Design, Editing, and Production Design.

But then I needed to catch up with the animated shorts. It took some planning, but I fit all three programs into one weekend. Here were my favorites.

Favorite overall program: documentary short (as per usual).

Favorite documentary short: The Last Repair Shop (one of the best shorts I’ve seen in years.)

Favorite live-action short: tie: Red, White and Blue, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.

Favorite animated short: Our Uniform

It was a good weekend of moviegoing.

70 Millimeter Film at the Hollywood

Not on my list of movies to see in this post, but one I fit in anyway, was a 70mm showing of Napoleon at the Hollywood Theatre. It’s fun to see the super big format, though I overall don’t love war movies. I was hedging my bets that this movie will be nominated for several Academy Awards, thus it was good to cross it off the to-watch list now.

Christmas Eve Movie Selection

As is my annual tradition, I pick a movie to attend on Christmas Eve as it provides a stopping point for preparation. There was essentially no preparation this year, so it was fine to see a movie at 9:45 a.m.

It was just me in the Istanbul room today at Studio One. I sat in all the seats and took notes as to which might be the best to reserve next time. I also had Studio One popcorn for the first time. It was delicious. Even at 9:45 in the morning.

December Movies to See

Thanks to the holiday schedule and a contest at work, we got Monday through Thursday of the Christmas week off, plus I took off Friday. What does that mean? Much time to watch movies in theaters. And this is great timing as there are many movies to see. Here was my planning sheet. As you can see, I had moviegoing companions for many of these.

Of this list I didn’t make it to Fallen Leaves (which is supposed to be great) and Boys in the Boat (which I’m somewhat ambivalent about given how much I liked the book.)

Kelly asked if I wanted to see The Color Purple, so I ended up seeing four of five movies with people. That’s pretty rare.

My ranking: Iron Claw (recommended), the Color Purple (recommended), Anyone But You (good), Poor Things (I liked things about it, but kind of really hated it, Skip), Wonka (the fat jokes entirely ruined this somewhat okay film, Skip).

Gold Curtain at the Cinemagic Theater

This theater certainly sets the stage for a great time at the movies.

The shine on that gold curtain! Mesmerizing.

Jesse and Celine Keeping Me Company

One thing I like about HBOMax is that they have a category called “leaving soon.” It’s so very handy to catch the things that soon won’t be there. Because of that category, my morning chores were spent with the young Jesse and Celine (Before Sunrise) and the middle Jesse and Celine (Before Sunset). HBOMax didn’t have Before Midnight, which was a shame, because my middle-aged self likes their middle-aged selves. I rented it, but the rental ran out before I got halfway through.

Such a great trilogy!

Recording the Rebecca Podcast

I was a guest on Lambcast Episode #555 where we discussed the two movie versions of Rebecca. As usual, my doodling kept me engaged through the recording.

You can listen to the episode here.

Prep Work for Nolan

Because Filmspotting decided to do an Ouevre-view of Christopher Nolan’s work before Tenet was released, I was well set up to discuss all of Christopher Nolan’s non-Batman films for the LAMBcast. Here’s a sheet of my talking points.