14 down...

The husband and I made it another double feature night at the Arbor last Friday. Can I just say again how much I LOVE the staff there?!

We started off with "An Education" in the late afternoon. This film stars Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard and is set in London in the early 1960's. The story follows Jenny, a prep-school student whose whole life is centered around getting into Oxford. The focus doesn't seem to bother Jenny as she looks forward to her time at Oxford as a time to escape her parents and eventually move to Paris and listen to French pop music. Her life is intersected by David (Peter Sarsgaard) a worldly gentleman with a penchant for showing young women the school of life. The movie (with screenplay adapted by Nick Hornby - !!!) is enjoyable and actually much funnier than I thought it would be. Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams, Cara Seymour, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, and Emma Thompson shine in their supporting roles and Carey Mulligan really treads the line between 16-yr-old schoolgirl and "young woman" very well. I don't think this is Best Picture, but Mulligan and Hornby's contributions are delightful and worthy of accolade.

We then moved on to "Crazy Heart" - Jeff Bridges' tour-de-force as an aging country singer-songwriter. Thank you, director, for opening the movie at a bowling alley - you know we all wanted it, thanks for delivering. Word of warning - this movie is INTENSE! Maybe not "Precious"-intense, but intense in its own way. I knew the film was about the redemption of this man, but I didn't know we were going to follow him all the way down to the bottom, and then lower than that. The music really takes center stage and I think that really added to the authenticity and credibility of the film - not to mention the actors doing their own vocal and instrumental performances. Who would've thought?! The cameos are so outstanding that I won't ruin them for you. Of the two from our double feature - I would recommend this one over "An Education." Can't wait to watch The Dude accept his Oscar. And Ryan Bingham (fellow Austinite!!! or former, at least).

I had Monday off in honor of President's Day, so I decided to catch up with my husband on our Oscar quest (he was 2 ahead of me!). So I headed down to South Austin to catch "The Blind Side" at the AMC at Barton Creek Square Mall. Foolish me forgot about "Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief" opening this past weekend - I just about had a heart attack standing in line to buy my ticket. No fear upon entering my theatre, just me and old people. Not gonna lie - I really enjoyed this movie. I thought Sandra Bullock was great as a tough, but soft Southern mom and I'm glad this story got told on the big screen. Some critics have branded this film as racist, and I do see that. But at the end of the day, isn't it just about reaching out and helping someone who is down-on-their-luck even though they're not like you? Again - not Best Picture, but a good movie about football and family.

So on Tuesday it was time to catch up on our neglected Netflix and watch "In The Loop" - nominated for Best Original Screenplay. This one is a government satire about miscommunication and power plays eventually leading to declaring war - all in about a week. It involves both British and American politicians and I just don't know if I got it. I would maybe want to watch or discuss it with someone who knows anything about the inner workings of politics (*cough*Will*cough*). It was pretty funny for the first half and then I just got really confused - and kind of ended up not liking any of the characters. Apparently the movie is spun off from a show on the BBC - sadly British humor does not always translate for me. But how awesome was it to see Anna Chlumsky again?!

The future holds "A Serious Man" - coming in our Netflix today. This is the last Best Picture nominee for us to view. Not sure what we'll see in the theatre next - "Nine" has the most nominations of any movie we haven't seen. But "Shutter Island" opens this weekend and I want to see that...who knows...