Movie Time

The awards are happening.  The academy awards are at the end of the month and I haven't seen many of the nominees.  I've usually seen most of them by January.  Two of the movies up for awards I saw through Netflix.  The first one I want to mention is 'Drive'.  The academy award nominee for best supporting actor is Albert Brooks.  The star of the movie is Ryan Gosling.  I believe he was the latest recipient of the title 'world's sexiest man' from People Magazine.  I've seen 2 of his movies, Drive and 'Lars and the real Girl'.  In both his total dialogue would fit on one page.  Lars was OK.  Some wit, a quirky character and a loving view of small town American life.  In 'Drive' the main character, Gosling, shoots one guy with a shotgun, stabs another with a curtain rod, another with a knife, and after kissing his neighbor's wife he stomps a man to death while they are all riding in an elevator.  The movie ends with him sitting in a car alone with the soundtrack playing a song whose lyrics are, and I'm paraphrasing, 'he's a hero, a real human being'.
The only thing I liked in the movie is the fact that Albert Brooks, one of the bad guys, is a Hollywood producer and a cutthroat.  Literally, he cuts peoples throats. 
Moving on.
Last night I saw 'The Iron Lady' with Meryl Streep.  Meryl is up for best actress and she's good as usual.  The movie less so.  They do a lot of flashbacks to Margaret Thatcher's life while in the present she is undergoing dementia, hallucinating her dead husband, who is played by the great Jim Broadbent.  There is too much of the dementia and too little of the Thatcher years.  But they did show some of the effects of her policies.  For me Thatcher is from the same school as Newt Gingrich.  They're preachers and the sermon is that the other side is evil and bad for the country.  Even though the other side are the duly elected representatives of the people.  But then of course Thatcher and Gingrich know what's best for us all: 'Be quiet and do as you're told'.  The film actually has her saying: 'I won't compromise.  I won't be conciliatory.'  Not a great policy in a democracy.
But then, thanks to netflix, I got to see 'A better Life' and it's wonderful.  The leading man Demian Bichir is up for an Oscar, and well-deserved.  The director is Chris Weitz who did 'About a Boy' which I loved and produced 'A single Man',  and he's from NYC.  The movie tells the story of an illegal immigrant from Mexico trying as a single parent to keep his teenage son out of trouble and away from the gangs in LA.  Best scene: when he confronts the man who stole his dream when he stole his truck.  I presume it would be considered an American film.  But it's not nominated for best picture.