“Ted” is nominated for Best Song.  This clip is probably all anyone needs to see of the movie.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veHpPG-Wcy8

Still, I watch the whole darn, thing; and I laughed out loud.   I saw “Ted,” with Loved-One and Ducky.  We watched it On Demand, which cost me a little more than I like to pay to see this kind of raunchy humor.

Yes, it’s true.  I did like it.  All three of us did.  My favorite part: when Ted went over-the-top-raunchy trying to impress a young woman, the three of us watching all squirm and emote “eeewww,” at the same time, right before the camera shows the woman with the exact same reaction as we had.

I do like Norah Jones, and the song is a good one.  Still, the bar is high for me on “Best Song.”  It must bring me back to the time and place when I first saw the film.  Think “Are You Going to Scarboro Fair” and “The Graduate.”  Not so with this song.

“Lincoln” sort of depressed me.  As my mother said, “So much for Honest Abe.” I guess politics is dirty as far back as our history goes.  Bribing, conniving, and threatening; not to mention misrepresenting.  All for a good cause.  I wonder if we will look back on the Affordable Health Care Act and legalizing gay marriages.  I suppose sometimes the ends do justify the means.

“Lincoln” was, indeed a great film.  It was so dialog rich, I had to pay attention every minute.  For that reason, I’m not so sure how the acting stacked up. All my attention went into listening.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJVuqYkI2jQ

Daniel Day-Lewis made me believe he WAS Lincoln.  He truly is a master.

Sally Field did a great job of quivering in her opening scene.  She gave just the right undercurrent of depression; not over-the-top like she did in her bipolar in television’s “ER.”  Still, when Mrs. Lincoln visited the bedroom of her dead son, I couldn’t help but lean over and whisper to Loved-One:  “That’s the son the vampires got.” Far-fetched fiction which left a lasting impression.  why wasn’t “Abraham Lincoln:  Vampire Hunter” nominated for anything?

“The Beast of the Southern Wild” is a thought-provoking film. So far, I think it should get Best Picture for that reason alone.  Some people might be shocked by the living conditions the people living in The Bathtub endured.  I think the message is stronger than that.  Love, loyalty, perseverance, and the desire to teach our children how to survive in the world are common to all of us.  It made me wonder why people ever started living here in Chicagoland.  It sure is a hostile environment, both winter and summer.  Sure we have climate control now.  Still, why did anyone come here in the first place?

My grandson pointed out that Quvenzhané Wallis, who plays Hushpuppy, is the youngest actress ever nominated for Best Actress.  I thought Shirley Temple was much younger. when she got her Oscar.

She was only six.  Her Oscar was not for Best Actress but “in grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during the year 1934”.

Quvenzhané Wallis, is marvelous.  Jodie Foster, another child star, comment on Wallis’s  talent in the New York Times:  “I think people don’t really understand child acting,” said Ms. Foster, who first went in front of the camera at age 3. “They think that they just throw them out there, and they’re cute and that’s what they do. But that’s a really layered, beautiful performance that comes from a completely instinctual place. It’s just God-given, you know?”

And she’s a little cutie, to boot.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF7i2n5NXLo

 

Related articles

• The 2013 Oscar Nominees (o.canada.com)
• Quvenzhané Wallis becomes youngest ever lead actress Oscar nominee (thegrio.com)
• Norah Jones To Sing ‘Ted’ Theme At Oscars (wxrt.cbslocal.com)