What the f*ck is wrong with british people? February 6

Filed under movies by tph | 0 comments

I’ve never understood the controversy over the way the royal family handled Diana’s death.  She stole another woman’s boyfriend, couldn’t handle life in the spotlight, and spent a good chunk of the last couple of years of her life trying to bring down her ex-husband’s family.  That being said, she did amazing things with her position, and truly strove to make the rest of the world a better place. But still, a week of mourning? Millions of dollars in flowers? Calling for the abolishment of the monarchy because they didn’t raise a flag? Get over it already.  I’m not looking forward to this August (which will be the 10th anniversary of her death), I’m expecting lots of tears, Elton John playing everywhere and video montages of her smiling and waving and complaining about landmines and “the establishment”.  Bleh.

As you can probably guess, I finally got out to see The Queen last night.  It’s nominated for Best Actress, Costume Design, Directing, Score, Best Picture, and Writing (Original).  Based on the buzz I’ve heard (and my opinions of movies I’ve seen so far), it’s likely to win Best Actress, and possibly Writing (though, I personally would still prefer to see Judi Dench win for BA). The only thing I didn’t like about the movie is that Alex Jennings doesn’t look anything like Prince Charles — the cognitive dissonance from that took a little to work through. Everything else was brilliant — I heart James Cromwell a lot (even though his characters normally creep me out), and Michael Sheen’s smiley portrayal of Tony Blair almost makes me like the guy.  I loved the foreshadowing of how he would soon be in the hotseat too.

This week, I’m trying to catch up with A. wrt preparation for watching the Oscars.  Last night,  the Queen, tonight (hopefully) Last King of Scotland, and on Wednesday, Letters from Iwo Jima.  After that, the only big movie that I still have yet to watch is Babel, and I may try to sneak in Volver and Little Children at some point as well (though I’m not as interested in those).