First: Cate Blanchett. As if you couldn't tell from this blog... Cate and I have kind of a tumultuous relationship. Sometimes, I think she's crap. Sometimes, I think she's a genius. I do think that her Oscar nominations tend to come from the films in which she is the least impressive (The Aviator, Notes on a Scandal), and that she's in too many goddamn movies, but it's hard to deny a body of work that includes Elizabeth, Oscar and Lucinda, Coffee and Cigarettes, The Good German, Heaven, and Veronica Guerin. Happy birthday, Cate!
But, more importantly, happy birthday to Sofia Coppola. The woman certainly can't act worth a damn, but it's okay because she makes up for it in her directorial skills. She's directed two total masterpieces, one of which is only my favorite film of all time.
...oh, and George Lucas. Yeah. The original three Star Wars sure are great, aren't they? I shan't talk about the most recent three.
Mystic River is on TV. I haven't seen this movie in over a year, so I forgot: daaaamn, it's good. It's an extremely smart and respectable drama, and Eastwood uses ambiguity really well. 2003 really was nowhere near horrendous like everyone seems to think; I'd love to give this film Best Picture in that year, but it's got to compete with two titles even more superior to it: Lost in Translation (my aforementioned favorite film) and Kill Bill, Vol. 1's gonzo insanity. If you're including TV movies, it has to deal with the second-greatest film of the entire 1990-2006 period, Angels in America.
