Slow Week and The First Special Occasion Post

It was a pretty slow week at the box office this weekend as nothing of importance was released. Yeah, that's right, Bangkok Dangerous does not meet the criteria to warrant any kind of positive recognition. Nick Cage should know better. Does he want his Oscar taken away like Cuba and Halle? Anyway, without any flashy Hollywood blockbuster to distract me this weekend, I took a jot over to the theater that plays the good movies. I was eager to see Frozen River, a film that's been picking up film festival prizes just about everywhere, including the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance. To be poetic, Frozen River is about survival. Melissa Leo plays a woman who stumbles into the business of human smuggling after her husband runs out on her and their two children and takes all of their savings with him. I liked quite a few things about this film. First, I liked that the issue of human smuggling and border jumping didn't take place in the Southwest. Instead, the bulk of the story takes place between New York and Canada on Native American Reservations. This definitely puts a new perspective on this issue. Second, the performances were really good too. I wouldn't call all of the characters likeable, but you could relate to them on a human level. Oscar buzz seems to be starting already for Melissa Leo and I think that's pretty warranted. I wouldn't mind her getting nominated, but I'm not sure if it's winning material. But overall I think it's a good film and I enjoyed watching it.

Well I posted my review for Frozen River yesterday and only realized this morning that I completely forgot to include my first "special occasion" post that I mentioned in my very first blog entry. The first post regarding theatre! This weekend I was fortunate enough to catch a performance of A Chorus Line. I had never seen this show before and I'm thrilled I finally got to see it. I really enjoyed the simplicity of this show, but that's not to say it's boring. The singing and dancing was great and I was very surprised at how risque it was at times. I had thought (I have no idea why) that it was a very G-Rated musical, but it's not. And that's not a bad thing. It was pretty cheeky and clever at times too. I had a good time!