Liking movies is my only personality trait. I almost missed my stop on the train home because I was texting someone about the Oscars.
Okay actually movie type stuff is most of what I've done this week really.
Non-movie stuff includes: I went out to get hot pot with my sister and our friend, River, last week and had a really good time. We went to this place that we always go to for hot pot but it had been a while since we'd been there and we had a different waitress than usual (we think she might be the owner though?) and she was really funny.
Then a couple days ago me and Colleen went to Cambridge to go see a double feature at the Brattle Theater. I've always wanted to go there because I wrote a scene analysis for their blog last year (and then a few months after, their blog went on a break so I haven't been able to write anything since) but I had never actually been to the movie theater there. It was a really good deal for a double feature, and we got to see The Farewell and Booksmart, both of which we had wanted to see!
They were both really good in their own ways. The Farewell is definitely the stronger of the two, and it honestly is one of the most refreshing and legitimately heartfelt (overused as that word is) films I've seen in the past few years! It's based on a true story, originally an episode of NPR's This American Life, about the family of the director (Lulu Wang) and how they chose not to tell her grandmother that she has stage 4 lung cancer and only months to live. The main character - Billi (Awkwafina) in the film - is opposed to hiding this information from her grandmother but her family thinks it will allow her grandmother to live the end of her life untroubled. So instead, the family organizes a wedding for Billi's cousin in China so that they can all be with her grandmother one last time (Billi and her parents live in America, while her cousin's family has been living in Japan).
It's an incredibly thoughtful piece of cinema. And it was totally shut out of the Academy Award nominations.
I have a lot of thoughts about the Oscars. Honestly, there is no pastime I cherish more than getting angry about the Oscars nominations every year. It's a film Twitter tradition, and I don't have enough clout to qualify as film Twitter but I like to participate anyway. But there is something really disheartening about seeing the Academy, representatives of one of the highest honors in contemporary cinema, consistently nominate mediocre works by established (almost completely white, almost completely male) directors, while passing over truly original, incredible works by newer directors or directors with less "institutional clout" than a Scorsese, Tarantino, or Baumbach.
But oh well. I have a lot of thoughts but I'll save it for another time when I can be more articulate. I'm excited that Parasite got nominated for a few categories though! And, honestly shocked to learn that this is the first time a Korean film has been nominated for....basically anything. Guess I shouldn't be surprised but considering how influential New Korean Cinema has been, I cannot believe it took this long. Manifesting positive energy for Bong Joon-ho come February 9th (not that Bong himself really cares about this. He's called the Oscars a "local film festival." Legend.)
Oh and anyway we liked Booksmart a lot too! It's really funny, and if you have Hulu you can watch it there, I would highly recommend it for a night you're looking for a fun teen comedy about some high-achieving students getting into shenanigans the night before graduation.
Well, that's about it for now. Tomorrow I have an internship interview. Today, I had my interview for the Japan program. I got stuck in a stairwell afterward but thankfully a nice stranger helped get me out of the building.
Casting benevolent curses that bring good tidings on all of you this week (extra strong for people in "Denmark")!!
I heard that the oscars this year gave the joker A LOT of nominations. I think the joker was a very original and deserved it’s award, what do you think? Also, I heard that, like what you were saying, there wasn’t a lot of diversity this year which is a bummer :/
This sounded like a really fun week with your sister! And yeah.... I’ve never been into any of the big award shows, so in my head they’re not thatttt important. But I have been getting more into movies so it’s a bit more interesting so see how things I’ve seen bode in the oscars. But surprise surprise. Idk how the nominations even work tbh but it’s clear whoever does them doesn’t give a hoot when year after year they’re critiqued. But you know, at the local level whatcha gonna do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’m gonna probably talk about it in my post but the farewell was really good! And book smart was too. You’re lucky you saw two bangers in a row