Hello there! Did you miss me? It’s been a minute.

I took a break over the holidays. Okay, not quite a break, but I refocused on getting my novel to my editor, and when it came back, I decided I needed to focus, focus, focus. The novel is resting for a bit, and opinions and ideas are percolating in my brain.

How did you feel about the Oscars this year? As usual, I marathoned my movie-watching after the nominations came out. I voted for the movies that I thought should have won, not the ones I thought would win, which are often not the same. As usual, I got a failing grade of around 34% correct predictions.

My favorite movie of 2024: Past Lives.

I saved this movie to watch with my Loved One on Valentine’s Day.  NPR’s reviewer Justin Chang pegged it perfectly as “both achingly romantic and earnestly philosophical.”

The story revolves around what it’s like for Na Young to reunite with her 12-year-old crush, Hae Sung, 30 years after immigrating from South Korea.  She’s chosen an American name, Nora.  She is happily married to Arthur, with a budding career as a playwright in New York.

Nora tells Arthur that when she’s with Hae Sung she feels more Korean and at the same time less Korean. Arthur quietly lets the relationship between Hae Sung and Nora play out as they reconnect.

I’ll pause here a moment to say that, as the story progressed, Loved One worried, “She’s going to leave her husband, isn’t she.” Really?  Do you think that’s what I’d pick for Valentine’s Day?

Past Lives is a quiet movie, not the kind that often wins Oscars. But it is one that illuminates the human heart, a story that I thought about after I left the theatre, and one that stimulates discussion.  

By attending to the lost time and opportunity that Hae Sung and Nora experience, we might miss the quiet love and patience that Arthur exhibits. This is a story about destiny and love and hope, and how these three things are woven together in our lives. 

There’s a chasm between Arthur and Nora because of language and culture. Arthur makes a laudable effort, but he can never close that breach.  That is in essence the same for all couples. We glimpse pieces of our loved one when we meet up with people with whom they share a history, but we’re on the outside of the bubble, perhaps trying, but never quite able to share the experience. 

Poor Things left me wondering.

Just who were the poor things in this movie. Was it the men in the movie? They were indeed poor things, at the mercy of Bella’s naïve exuberance. Maybe it was the unborn child and the suicided woman whom Dr. Godwin Baxter stitched together in a mad scientist’s experiment; a mother and child chimera of sorts.  Or was it the people who sacrificed nearly three hours to watch a sexualized version of Edward Scissorhands. Thank goodness I was never led to wonder how Edward dealt with his awakening sexuality.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Emma Stone did a fantastic job with Bella. That said, I’m left with one burning question:  Why?

Annette Benning’s and Jodi Foster’s performances awed me in Nyad.

To tell the truth, everytime I saw Nyad, I thought, “now what was that about? But everytime I saw Annette Benning’s and Jodi Foster’s nomination, I thought, “Oh my Lord, YES!” Plus, the performance left me in awe of Diane Nyad’s dogged determination to swim from Cuba to Florida.  Both Annette and Jodi must have sacrificed a lot just to get in shape for their parts.  

I’m not much of a sports fan, yet movies about men beating their bodies up to accomplish great physical challenges are too numerous to count. Except for Million Dollar Baby (2004,) I cannot think of another about a woman athlete who got nominated for an Oscar.

I have a hard time understanding what drives someone to abuse their body in such extreme physical challenges. Nyad is about that, but it’s also about how a friend can be just what we need to put us in our place, help us gain perspective, and support us through it all.  Sometimes what you do with “your one wild and marvelous life” is support someone else’s dream.

Barbie was so much fun.  

I’m sorry it didn’t win more awards.  Still, I have a bit of a caveat for my delight in Barbie.  Why or why did we see all these Barbies relinquish their power and become submissive to the consciousness-raised Kens? Isn’t there room in the world for men and women to own their power?  I was disappointed the movie took that turn. I would have been even more disappointed if Billie Eilishe’s song, “What am I Made For” didn’t win.

What did you think of the winners this year?

Did you think Killers of the Flower Moon got robbed? Were you angry that Margot Robbie wasn’t nominated? Did you try to watch them all. What was your favorite 2023 movie?