Oscar Time

Everyone says Oscar has a short memory, which means Academy members tend to pick films that feature in December, and as such, good movies, those with a chance for Oscar, are often released late in the year.

That means, a bunch of good movies are out for the watching. Among the ones I want to see are: Letters from Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood's companion piece to the mostly forgotten Flags of Our Fathers, telling the story of Japanese soldiers told to defend Iwo Jima to their deaths. The Queen, about Queen Elizabeth's reaction to Lady Diana's untimely death.

Curse of the Golden Flower, a court melodrama, by Zhang Yimou, set in radiant colors, with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung replaced by Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li. Volver by Spanish bad boy turned patriach, Pedro Almodovar. Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro, about a girl's fantasy during wartime. Children of Men, a variation on Handmaid's Tale about a society where no children have been born, until one day, a pregnant woman is found, directed by Alfonse Cuaron(!).

I still haven't caught a few films I wanted to see: The Fountain, which had mixed reviews, Shortbus, which came in and out of theaters, and The Departed, Martin Scorsese's take on Hong Kong thriller, Infernal Affairs.

I'm sure I'll only catch a few of these, but at least, there are a few films I'd like to see, which was better than a few months ago, when I didn't care to see much.