I don’t know when it happened, but I’ve gone from loving awards shows to being unable to stand them (with the exception of the Tony Awards). I like to know who’s nominated and who wins, and I loves me some Tom the Dog for his wondrous recaps, but whenever I actually see a red carpet on my television screen, I grab the remote.
So what did I watch instead? One of last year’s nominees, Lost in Translation, and I really enjoyed it. I thought the editing could have been tighter at certain points, but it was lovely. If it hadn’t been coronation year for Peter Jackson (which I’m not quibbling with), I think Sofia Coppola could easily have won the Best Director Oscar in addition to her Best Original Screenplay award.
I always like Bill Murray, but Scarlett Johansson really took me by surprise. I thought she was good (if not particularly remarkable) in Ghost World, and I wasn’t expecting too much from her here. But, wow, she has such a gift for facial expressions; I couldn’t believe how much she was able to communicate without words and how much intelligence seemed to inform her choices. I do think she could use some vocal training to help her invest her line readings with some more variety. Still, she was only 18 when the movie was made, so she’s got plenty of time.
In other “what took you so long” news, I picked up the great big book of Bone over the weekend. It wasn’t reliably available to me during its single-issue days, so it’s sat on the “I’ll try it in trades someday” list. The format made it irresistably easy to do so. Now I’ve just got to resist the urge to lock myself in a room and read it cover to cover in a sitting. Just delightful stuff, bound to become a personal favorite.