The Academy Awards are less than one week away. All the glitz, the glamour, the live-tweeting (#YMCOscars, @kitten_arms) and who's-wearing-what you can handle! For us busy mums and dads, we may not have had a chance to see all the Best Picture contenders, but fear not! With my easy guide, you can pick your last one or two grabs at the bag before the big show on Sunday.
The Must-Sees
A few years ago, the Oscars increased the number of films that could be nominated under the Best Picture category, so there is a lot more to see. Even I haven't seen every single movie (going to try for Beasts of the Southern Wild this week). But from what I have seen, I would highly recommend you get in either Django Unchained or Silver Linings Playbook. These movies are both exceptional for very different reasons. Django is probably Tarantino's best work to date and the story, acting (especially by Christoph Waltz and Leo Dicaprio) is fantastic. SLP, on the other hand, is sad, romantic, family-driven and well rounded with probably my favourite performance of Bradley Cooper's ever. I know everyone's been talking about Jennifer Lawrence and she's really been sweeping up the awards, but B-Coop really is in a class above in this film. De Niro is also phenomenal.
The Nice-to-Sees
For me, Zero Dark Thirty, Argo and Life of Pi all fall into this category. Well-crafted films, each has something great, but each, for me, wasn't spectacular. ZDT was intense and gritty, and I definitely enjoyed it, but it was far from my favourite film of the year. Argo, while well-filmed, superbly acted and excellently directed was totally historically wrong which is a real slap in the face to those of us who know the true history of the Canadian government's involvement in the Iran Hostage Crisis. I also found the depiction of Iranians and the false-hoods around the Revolution presented in the movie to be troublesome...but it is Hollywood. Life of Pi looked lovely, was filmed beautifully, but was just missing something for me. But, it doesn't mean any of these movies are bad. Not at all. I just didn't love them enough to think they are must-see-pre-Oscars fare.
The Everyone's-Already-Seen
Les Mis & Lincoln are the two biggies this year that pretty much everyone's seen, so if you haven't seen them yet, well, you're like me! I know. But to be fair, I'm pretty positive Lincoln is pretty flawless especially DDL's performance, and I need enough time alone to be able to go see Les Mis since this is one the hubby definitely won't see.
The Wish-We'd-Seen
The last two films on the Best Picture list are both smaller, independent films: Amour and the above mentioned Beasts of the Southern Wild. The nomination of these two films surprised a lot of people and had a lot of reporters scratching their heads. These movies weren't even really on mainstream media's radar until they were nominated! They are probably both fantastic little works of art, but because they don't have any huge names, they may not get any love from either the Academy or the general public. Who knows, though, maybe one of these little Art House movies will win and everyone associated with the film will become a huge name?
I'll be getting organized this week for my annual Oscars fondue party, and trying to squeeze in a few more films. Which ones are you most interested in seeing?
Filmmaking, like most of the arts these days, is not for the weak of heart, and is a very difficult business even for those "in the know." Filmmakers often have to struggle to get things made, as it seems that big studios want to take less and less chances, fearing that their bottom line might suffer. Sometimes, directors have to take things into their own hands, much like Canadian director Allison Parker. An effects editor, producer, director, and writer, Parker has worked towards making her own work, as opposed to working for other's films. She's been in the industry for twelve years, and knows many people. Still, it's a hard road to find someone willing to fund any movie, let alone a kid's film about ferrets.
Parker, a ferret owner herself, came up with the idea of this movie after a very successful first kid's movie, Jake and Jasper: A Ferret Tale. Friends' kids took to the cuddly little guys (Parker is the owner of two ferrets of her own) and loved the film, so Parker worked with writer Sally Meyer to make her new movie idea come to life. Just one problem—no producer. So, Parker decided to try things a little differently—she has created an amazing trailer with the cast that she wants to use (including some fairly well-known actors and actresses) and she's put it online, hoping that the word gets out.
While Kickstarter (the online fundraising tool) isn't available for Canadians just yet, and the fundraising tools we have available may not quite be up to snuff, I'm impressed with her desire to make her movie. With the small amount of funding that she did receive, she was able to pull this high-end trailer together, which is being shared on social media by ferret-lovers across the world, and she's broadened her search for the right producer by hoping that anyone with a love of the classic kids' movie (think The Sandlot, The Goonies, and The Neverending Story) will want to help get this movie made.
I hope that this movie gets made, because it looks great. But then Parker's secret will be out—ferrets will be the new pet that every kid will want after seeing this trailer.
So, spill it! Would you take your kids to see The Ferret Squad?
After I saw a comment on a mum's group early on Monday claiming that Beyonce could not be a "feminist" by wearing a sexually charged outfit (I'm paraphrasing), and that women who wear sexy clothes can't be considered feminists because they look "skanky," I took to Twitter to express my frustration. It frustrates me to no end that in 2013, we still need to explain to women as well as men that regardless of what a woman chooses to wear, she is not trampy nor asking for it. I also find it incredibly frustrating that we still try and put the onus of education on celebrities and pop stars whose job it is to entertain us to also parent our kids.
Beyonce, while stunningly beautiful, certainly doesn't fit the standard Hollywood beauty model. She's black, she's not particularly busty and she's got amazing curves complete with a big booty and thick thighs. She works very hard to maintain her looks as it's part of her job—because whether we like it or not, part of a pop star's job is to be beautiful. We shouldn't begrudge her for that. And we certainly shouldn't call her trampy for wearing a high-profile, over-the-top outfit to perform a 15-minute mini-concert for millions of people around the world.
It's her costume.
We also shouldn't clutch our pearls and claim that she's too scantily clad for our children to see. What we should be saying to our kids (sons AND daughters) is that this is her on-stage persona, her costume, and she wears it because it's part of the bigger show. It's probably much easier for her to dance in a unitard than it is to dance in a full ankle to neck covering outfit.
And yes, this outfit shows a lot of skin. But no, we shouldn't expect that we will all have kids who grow up to look like Beyonce, nor should our kids feel threatened by that, or bad about it. And the onus of teaching our kids that is on us, not on her. Everyone is different in their own way, and everyone is beautiful in their own way, with his or her own abilities and talents, and I'm sure that at the end of the day, what's most important to Beyonce is her daughter, her husband, her family and her career. The same as every single mum and dad around. It's our job to teach our kids good values and self esteem, not celebrities.
The thing that really struck me, both on this mum's forum earlier today, as well as within the comments of a Jezebel article about the spectacular show, was people arguing that for all her talk of feminism, she was dressed too provocatively, that she is too sexualized to truly have the brains or understanding of what it truly means to be feminist.
THIS HAS TO STOP, AND IT HAS TO STOP RIGHT NOW.
A woman, by the same right as any man, is allowed to wear what she wants and achieve whatever she desires. And Beyonce has done just that. Independent Women isn't just a song. For her, it is truly a way of life. And there are those of us who believe strongly that women should have equality, be treated with dignity and respect and be able to wear whatever our hearts desire, whether it be prairie chic or mini skirts and high heels. This is the prerogative of a woman, a man, of any individual who wants to dress in a style of clothing that is pleasing to them. Beyonce wasn't walking into a board meeting at her clothing line, or a contract negotiation with her record label.
She was walking out on stage with all her beauty, brains, and sexuality and still owning the shit out of everyone in that stadium.
There are a myriad of reasons why I think Beyonce's half-time show has been lauded by some, but at its core, I see patriarchal divide and conquor sexism rearing it's ugly head. Sexual women, by their approximation cannot be powerful because they are sluts. Beautiful women are too stupid to know what power they hold. And these comments, along with many others can come from both men and women who don't fully appreciate that it takes a lot of guts, a lot of determination and a lot of hard work to get where Beyonce is.
Every single performance at at the Super Bowl was done by a black woman (stellar performances from Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, and Kelly Rowland/Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child), and that alone should be what we're buzzing about, but what we're focusing on is what Beyonce wore and how unsavory that was. I didn't see the same backlash last year with Madonna's laughable show, and she even had thigh-high boots, fishnets and a mini skirt on!
It's time we started shifting perception and stopped lashing out at celebrities for doing exactly what they are here to do. Entertain, empassion and empower. Beyonce is one of the best performers, singers and songwriters of recent decades and to question her feminism or decry her ability to do her job based on an outfit is clearly rooted in bigger problems we have as a society when we see women, especially women of colour excel in their fields.
I'd like to lead that charge, and I hope others do the same.
Let's empower ourselves, our children and our families to have the right tools to combat the stereotypes portrayed through sexist comments and remind ourselves that while we all can't be Beyonce, we can certainly enjoy her kick-ass half time show.
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