Bone-chilling cold. Lows expected 30 degrees. Self hates this: blackened, dead salvias; blackened hydrangeas; shriveled bougainvilleas. Does anyone from self’s island ever take this into account when they think about California? It’s bitter here, especially when you have to cover all your plants against the frost, and even then they might not make it. The Man doesn’t care because the plants belong to self. She paid for them, she put them in the ground, so they are her responsibility. Taking into account that self is only ONE person, you’d think the weather would try and be a little more accommodating!
Anyhoo, the ostensible subject of this post was Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska.” She knew it would be bleak — one look at the wild-eyed Bruce Dern should tell ya — but it had unexpected touches of drollery and it ended on a positive note. Has Payne ever directed a movie that ends on a not-positive note? She doesn’t think so.
Theater (Palo Alto Square) was full! Full, mostly, of seniors.
Will Forte charmed. In fact, the way he was shot made him look quite handsome. If this movie doesn’t deliver an extra charge to his career, nothing will.
Stacy Keach was in it! Honestly! Self thinks the last movie she saw Stacy Keach in was something about policemen. Was it possibly “The New Centurions”? That was ages ago. Keach is an excellent heavy in “Nebraska.” Self could not believe that the strongest thing Will Forte’s character ever said to him was: “Get the hell away from us (Pause). Move.”
So now, self reviews her Ten Best Movies of 2013 list. Will “Nebraska” edge its way into that list? Hmmm, Hmmm, Hmmm.
Self’s list (as of yesterday) had these movies:
- Philomena
- Hunger Games: Catching Fire
- 12 Years a Slave
- Captain Phillips
- Gravity
- Blue Jasmine
- Warm Bodies
- Harana
- Josh Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing
- The Spectacular Now
OK, she’ll have to bump a film. Either “Captain Phillips” or “The Spectacular Now.”
Captain Phillips.
Her new (revised) Ten Best Movies of 2013 goes:
- Nebraska
- 12 Years a Slave
- Gravity
- Blue Jasmine
- The Spectacular Now
- Harana
- Warm Bodies
- Hunger Games: Catching Fire
- Josh Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing
- Philomena
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
