Oscars

Yesterday we visited the 7th edition of the Parool Oscar Weekend and it was great!

Our first feature was also the best of the day: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Two and a half hours of real cinema. Don’t wait for it to be shown on television because it needs the big screen. With a moving role of Casey Affleck as ‘the coward’ – he should have won that Academy Award for Best Supporting Male Actor! Was he really a coward? And was it murder? (And does Affleck really have a speech-impediment?)

What followed such a success could only be a disappointment. Well, we didn’t expect a lot of Sean Penn’s Into the Wild anyway. It’s a bit too long for my taste (while it’s shorter than The Assassination) and could have done with less road-movie flashbacks. I also don’t believe Chris McCandless (aka ‘Supertramp’) was the one-dimensional lovely son-in-law Penn wants us to believe he was. It seems he made the story better than truth anyway. But it should be said: the feel of the movie kept lingering on a long time after-wards.

Michael Clayton is an intelligent, entertaining thriller which I liked a lot. You can’t go wrong with this solid Clooney movie that’s something between Erin Brokovich and The Firm. It’s a pity it didn’t get the attention it deserved in Holland: it was shown only shortly in the theaters.

The Savages is less exciting but entertaining as well. Although I’m afraid that in a short while I will have forgotten what it is about… It did not make that much an impression! The story of two siblings who suddenly have to take care of their aging father has some fun, some tragic and some irritating moments.

Last but not least we got to see Juno. Not the great movie I expected it to be but a nice light (and not too long) ending of our fun day at the movies. I will definitely try to go again next year!

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