Sunday, February 24, 2013

Nine Movies. 24 Hours. 11,000 Calories of Popcorn.

(L-R, Start on top) Lincoln, Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty, Life of Pi, Amour, Beasts of a Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Misérables.

(Left to right, from top left) Lincoln, Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty, Life of Pi, Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Mis?rables.

Forrest Wickman: Laura, starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, we will spend 24 hours trapped in a small Times Square theater with ferocious Aurochs, a tiger named Richard Parker, and Anne Hathaway. Remind me again, reassure me: Why are we doing this? And will you be bringing crabby snacks and homemades?

L.V. Anderson:?I will not be bringing crabby snacks and homemades?they don?t travel well, and taste best hot?but we should talk about which snacks to bring to the AMC Best Picture Showcase. By my calculation, the time that will elapse between the beginning of?Amour?on Saturday morning and the end of?Beasts of the Southern Wild?on Sunday morning is 23? hours. What's the best way to keep our energy up over that period of time? I'm thinking nuts and maybe some dried fruit (if only so I can dust off my ?Mango Unchained? pun).

Wickman:?Having seen that first film?who at AMC made that programming decision? I can only assume it was the sadistic Michael Haneke?I can tell you that the answer is booze, of the strongest proof available.

Laura, if my intel is up-to-date, you?ve only seen one of this year?s nominees, Silver Linings Playbook. Are you actually excited to see these movies?

Anderson:?That's a complicated question. This year, like every other year, I vowed to see all the Best Picture Oscar nominees so I could better partake in the cultural conversation surrounding them. I also failed, like every other year. I?m not sure what it is about Oscar nominees that makes me so ambivalent about actually watching?them?probably the fact that they tend to be self-serious, whereas I prefer my cinematic entertainment to take the form of lighthearted comedies. So when I found out about the existence of the AMC Best Picture Showcase, it seemed like it was tailor-made for me?get all that pesky movie-watching out of the way at once, as efficiently as possible! So in that sense, yes, I am excited about seeing these movies. However, I recognize that movies are not designed to be viewed in this fashion. I anticipate some kind of emotional overload?at some point, maybe six to eight hours in, you can expect to find me bawling hysterically. Or maybe laughing hysterically! Who knows?

Wickman:?Considering I have already seen all this year's nominees, I should explain myself. As far as I can tell, I had two reasons for signing up for this, neither of which is stopping me from regretting it:

The first is fairly obvious: I really like most of these movies and am excited to spend more time with them.

The second is perhaps only slightly less obvious: I want to journey deep into the Oscar heart of darkness, to stare directly into the sun around which all this razzmatazz orbits, and have it stare back into me. I want Stockholm syndrome to make me like Argo again. And then I want Abraham Lincoln, or Ben Affleck?whatever?to set me free.

Anderson: I feel like we?d be remiss in our live-blogging duties if we failed to mention the reigning masterpiece of the genre: Xan Brooks? chronicle of the 11-hour Isner-Mahut Wimbledon match for the Guardian in 2010. Of course, what made that live-blog and its talk of ?Everlasting Zombie Tennis Players? so thrilling was that it was unexpected. Our live-blog, on the other hand, will be entirely predictable: We will resemble zombies by the end, no question about it.

By the way, here is our morning, afternoon, night, and morning's schedule, for those following along at home:

10:00 a.m. Saturday: Amour
12:20 p.m.: Lincoln
3:20 p.m.: Argo
5:35 p.m.: Django Unchained
9:30 p.m.: Les Miserables
12:30 a.m. Sunday: Zero Dark Thirty (Nice one, AMC!)
3:20 a.m.: Life of Pi
5:40 a.m.: Silver Linings Playbook
7:55 a.m.: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Laura and Forrest will post their first update Saturday morning before Amour. Come back all weekend to watch them experience moviegoing nirvana and/or lose their minds.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=4bf4aa5d1fb4c62606673164d11a05dd

ground hog day 2012 aaron carter black history month did groundhog see his shadow soul train don cornelius rod parsley barry sanders jr

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.