Film Recommendations

It's February and you know what that means....no, silly, not Valentine's Day....THE OSCARS! Since the nominations came out a few weeks ago, I have made it my mission to try to see as many of the nominated films as possible.

Movies viewed in the past 5 days: 4
Movies viewed that are nominated for an Oscar: 3
Movies viewed that won an award at Sundance: 1

I would recommend all 4 movies I have seen in the past few days. Here's my brief take on them:

Million Dollar Baby. This is a Clint Eastwood film and in my opinion, Clint is an amazing director. He acts alongside Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, who are both amazing. The general plot is that Hilary's character seeks out Clint's character to train her as a boxer. Interesting, yes, but why is it nominated? Well, there's a lot more to it than just a boxing movie. This may be the best picture in my book, though I still need to see Aviator and Sideways. Oh, and I'm not a member of the Academy, so it doesn't really matter what I think.

Smoke Signals. This is an older movie but I've wanted to see it since a peer used it for movie clips in a seminary class. The movie is about a Couer d'Alene indian and his story, especially his relationship with his father. It's a good flick. And it was filmed just across the border in Cd'A, ID.

Ray. Good movie, good music, GREAT acting. I had no idea much about the life of Ray Charles...what a great story of personal drive and wrestling with demons and an honest portrayal of the sadness that can come with success if you don't sort out your emotional stuff in life. Jamie Foxx was A-MA-ZING.

Hotel Rwanda. Everyone must see this movie. Don Cheadle does an amazing acting job but the story is what is so important....we need to know more about the things that have happened and are occurring in this world. Genocide is horrible, and it is happening today....it didn't end with the holocaust. We live in our cushy homes in America and we have no idea how tough life is in other countries. One of the students I went to this movie with said it's interesting that America cares if genocide happens to whites but if you are black, America won't help out. And I guess she has a point--we hear about the holocaust a ton but how many people know about the genocide that happened in Rwanda? Or that's happening in Darfur. And what are we doing to help stop it? Anything? I am so glad they made this film, and I hope you all go to see it so that you can ask me what I'm doing to help make change in the world.

OK, I'll let you know what I think about the Aviator and Sideways if I see them. Finding Neverland is another film I'd recommend, but I saw it a while ago so it doesn't make it in this post. :)