OSCAR PREDICTIONS FOR 2014

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write here, but I’m retiring from ministry this weekend, so I’m anticipating I will have much more time to dedicate to writing about what I love: Movies!

It seems fitting that I’m retiring on the Sunday the Academy Awards will be shown. It will be a full day with church, my retirement party and then the Oscars in the evening, but I’m ready!

I always make it a point to see every film nominated for Best Picture and as many others as I can manage. I am blessed to have married a wonderful man who also loves the movies and together we’ve seen all 9 nominated films. So here are my predictions for the top six Academy Awards.

BEST PICTURE: I find it amazing that out of the nine films nominated five of them are based on a true story. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed that The Book Thief wasn’t included in any of the nominations. I found it an incredibly touching film that moved me at my core. Also, I missed out on seeing Inside Llewyn Davis so I can’t comment on whether or not that film should have been included. All of the films nominated were good for different reasons, but I believe the film that will win the prize will be 12 Years a Slave. American Hustle has received quite a bit of buzz, but I don’t think it will take home many, if any Oscars. 12 Years a Slave is a film that was extremely difficult to watch and left me feeling ashamed of my race, but it is totally deserving of Best Picture and seems to have the momentum.

BEST DIRECTOR: It isn’t often that Best Picture and Best Director Awards are split, but I believe that will happen this year. Alfonso Cuaron deserves the statue for Gravity. The film was mesmerizing and left me asking myself ‘how’d they do that?’ This film will take home quite a few more Oscars. I predict Oscars for Gravity for Best Film Editing, Cinematography, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects.

BEST ACTOR: Chiwetel Ejiofor could possibly win for 12 Years a Slave, but I believe it will and should go to Matthew McConaughey. First of all, Hollywood often rewards actors/actresses who go to great physical extremes for their character, and McConaughey lost about 45 pounds for this role. As someone who is presently working on losing a few pounds, I admire his tenacity. He was also quite riveting and believable in the role.

BEST ACTRESS: This one is tough. Meryl Streep was awesome in August: Osage County, but she’s already won 3 Academy Awards and most people think she’s won even more than that as she’s been nominated 18 times. There has been a lot of talk about Amy Adams, and while she was good, I don’t believe she will win. When I saw Sandra Bullock in Gravity I knew she would be nominated. It has to be difficult to act in a film basically alone and against a green screen much of the time. However, the actress whose has been raking in all the awards (very deservedly) is Cate Blanchett for her role in Blue Jasmine and I believe she will take home the Oscar as well.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: This one feels like a slam dunk. It will be Jared Leto from Dallas Buyer’s Club….no contest. All of the other actors were great. Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips, Michael Fessbender in 12 Years a Slave, Bradley Cooper in American Hustle and Jonah Hill of The Wolf of Wall Street are all great actors, they just picked the wrong year to compete.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:  I know there is a lot of buzz about Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle and she just won last year, so there is some momentum for her to win two years in a row. There is also some sentiment for June Squibb to finally win an Oscar for her role in Nebraska. However, I believe the statue will go to Lupita Nyong’o for 12 Years a Slave. She has certainly won the hearts of the world with her heart-wrenching performance and I, for one, can’t wait to see what she wears on the Red Carpet.

I did not see any of the films nominated for BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, although I intend to see Frozen soon and the word among critics seems to be predicting it to win.

The Academy Awards is only a few days away and I’m looking forward to Ellen DeGeneres as host once again. My husband and I will each fill out our ballots and sit down in our living room on Sunday night to enjoy the show. I almost hope some of my predictions don’t come true as it seems like the Awards show has become way too predictable. I miss the days when strange and unpredictable things happened….like someone streaking out across the stage. Also, is it too much to ask for some interesting acceptance speeches…. forget the long list of people to thank and please tell us something unique and memorable!

It won’t matter to me how late the show runs as I’ll be retired. Unfortunately my husband will have to get up early to walk the dog and go to work….ah well. Life is Sweet. See you at the movies!

THE HOST

 

THE HOST

Imagine a world that is peaceful, illness is instantly cured, and there is no war or discord.  It sounds like a beautiful existence, and it is for the aliens, called Souls, who have occupied Earth and taken on earthling bodies as hosts. Not so much for the humans whose bodies have been inhabited. Most of the humans disappear into oblivion when the Souls are inserted into their bodies. But Melanie is a strong personality and refuses to disappear. This creates a challenge for the Soul named Wanderer living inside her body and together they embark on a journey complete with angst, danger and love.

 

This is the premise for the movie The Host based on the novel by Stephanie Meyers. Stephanie had great success with her Twilight trilogy about other worldly beings and a girl in love. This film has much the same idea, but with aliens and humans rather than werewolves and vampires. This new film is also about a woman torn between two different men, and yet it is also about so much more.

 

The Souls came to Earth, because they felt it was a violent world full of people who were not only quick to go to war and kill each other, but also slow to notice the harm they were doing to their own planet. The Souls figured they could improve the planet and bring peace and harmony; and they did, but at what cost? That is just one of the questions posed in this film. Another is…what exactly is it that we love when we love another? Is it their personality? Is it their body? Is it their soul? And what if the essence of who we loved were in another body? What then?

 

I read the book (twice) before seeing the film and I highly recommend it. It is 620 pages and I suppose that was difficult to squash into a 2 hour movie, and some of the character development was lost. They did the best they could, and while I really enjoyed the film, I was happy that I had read the book. Whether you see the film or read the book, this is a very interesting subject full of thought provoking questions.

 

 

Cloud Atlas

I went with 7 other people to see this movie and I was the only one who LOVED it. Yes, there is some violence and there were numerous times when I needed to cover my eyes. Violence doesn't keep me from seeing a film. There was violence in Avatar and The Matrix, but both of those films had powerful messages worth seeing, as does Cloud Atlas.

I have just gotten the book and plan on reading it and I also plan on going to see this film again and may write a more in-depth review after seeing it a second time. This is a long film (almost 3 hours) and the first third of the film leaves one a bit lost, but as the movie continues it all begins to fall into place...so keep that in mind as you watch it. This film is about 'connection'. We are all connected and the choices we make today affect the future....not only ours but others. It is visually beautiful and the actors do an incredible job of playing numerous roles. You will want to sit through the credits to see all the different roles each actor played, because some you won't have recognized.

I highly recommend this film!

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

It seems really great movies seem to be harder and harder to find. I had to travel to the next town to see this film. Then I had to laugh because the theater was filled with OLD people. I am considered a Senior Citizen, but I felt like a babe in that packed theater. When the film was over the theater erupted with applause and I immediately turned to the person next to me and said, "I want to see it again." This film is definitely worth traveling to wherever you need to go to see this film.

The movie is filled with wonderful lines. One of my favorites is, "Everything always turns out all right in the end; so if it's not all right it isn't yet the end."

This is a short entry as I'm very busy, but just wanted to make sure this movie recommendation got out there...if you can...go see this film!

I Am, the Documentary

I saw this film a few months ago and saw the film maker again today on Oprah. It will be available to watch online 11/1 and available in DVD after the first of next year. It may still be playing in a theater near you. It is definitely worth watching.

LIMITLESS

When I first heard about a movie called Limitless I was excited. This is what we teach in Unity: we are limitless. Jesus performed miracles. He walked on water, he changed water into wine and he healed the sick and raised the dead. Even his own death didn’t stop him. Jesus also said “greater things than these will you do…”


While a few people have managed healing themselves and facilitating healing for others, not too many of us have figured out how to do all that Jesus did, but I believe it is possible.

Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is not doing well in life. He has writer’s block, his girlfriend dumps him and his life is headed nowhere fast. Then remarkably he has an awakening to his true inner worth and power. Well, not exactly. That would have been a great spiritual cinema, but I suppose Hollywood couldn’t quite grasp that premise. Instead, Eddie runs into his ex-brother-in-law who gives him a mysterious new drug that promises to allow him to access 100% of his brain rather than the measly 20% that most of us tap into. The pill delivers as promised and Eddie is transformed and becomes, yes, you guessed it—limitless—that is until the pills start to run out.

Of course, this is Hollywood so there are chases and evil forces lurking and fighting for this power and drug. Don’t get me wrong, it was an interesting movie to watch and I rather enjoyed it. I especially liked the ending, because it left me wondering…kind of.

However, I don’t think Jesus was offering any pill when he told us we could be unlimited. There is no easy fix to enlightenment. I sometimes wish there was, but I have yet to find any. Jesus was unlimited, because he knew the truth about who he was. He was the Christ. He stood in that and he fully owned it!

I am unlimited when I stand fully in that knowing too. I have moments of it, and many more moments than I did when I first found Unity. You too can be unlimited and you don’t need a pill. All you need is the Truth that you are Spirit, and Spirit is unlimited. Believe in it. Stand in it. Claim it, and you too will be unlimited.

GROUNDHOG DAY

The following is an excerpt from my (one day to be published) book Reel Transformation.
GROUNDHOG DAY
Spiritual transformation can be found in all film genres, even comedies.

Groundhog Day (Albert, 1993) is a funny film that gives us a great view of someone who keeps refusing the call. We get a picture of Phil Connors (Bill Murray) at the beginning of the film as an adult who has, so far, successfully avoided the call to maturity and authenticity.

Throughout the movie we see him avoid the call over and over again when he tries to use his situation, not for personal growth, but for personal gain. When he does finally respond to the call, he opens himself up to an authentic, altruistic and loving life.

Home/Ordinary World

In this movie Phil’s Ordinary World or Home is not a physical place, but rather a state of mind or way of being in the world. He is a weatherman covering a story in Punxsutawney, Penn. on Groundhog Day that he feels is beneath him. “I don’t want to stay an extra second in Punxsutawney,” he says. He tells his cameraman, “Someday, someone’s going to see me interviewing a groundhog and think I don’t have a future.” He has higher aspirations for his career. “There’s a major network interested in me,” he says. We quickly see that he is a shallow, selfish, narcissistic, sarcastic, egotistical man who can’t wait to get out of what he considers a pitiful town. However, he gets stuck in the town another night due to a blizzard and wakes up to Groundhog Day all over again. He has become trapped in a personal time warp, waking up every day at 6 a.m. on Feb. 2 over and over and over again.

This is a wonderful analogy for the rut that sometimes happens when we find ourselves living, not just a day, but a life that does not satisfy us; yet instead of changing what we are doing, we keep repeating the same patterns, usually with different people.

Phil’s rut is more obvious in that he is actually living the exact same day with the exact same people over and over again. For everyone else it is the first time they are living this day, but Phil lives it thousands of times, again and again. The original script called for Phil to live the same day over and over again for 10,000 years. (National Review, 2006, paragraph 10).

We don’t know exactly how many days Phil stays stuck in the same day, but we know it must be a very long time, as we see that he learns to play the piano, as well as sculpt ice proficiently.


The Call and the Call Refused

Awareness of our life circumstances and the unhealthy patterns we live is a wonderful call to change. Too often we stay stuck in unhealthy patterns totally ignorant of them. Once we have awareness that we are stuck in a rut or an unhealthy pattern, we can respond to that awareness and begin to make changes.

Being stuck in the same day over and over again is an opportunity for Phil to look at his life in depth. However, Phil has successfully refused the call to personal growth his entire life, so it is not surprising that he continues to resist the call to transform.

Also early in the movie, when he first sees her, we see a glimmer of an attraction to his producer Rita, which he quickly pushes away. This is another call he has refused. Phil has seen something in her that attracts him. She is happy with life and her job. She is carefree, generous and giving, but he has denied those same qualities within himself; so he cannot accept them, at first, in someone else.

Rita represents his positive shadow. Our shadow is anything, positive or negative, that we have not developed or acknowledged within us that we project outward onto someone else. There is another side to Phil that he has refused to develop and this movie is about his acknowledging and transforming his dark side, and embracing and developing the light side of his shadow.

Interestingly enough, this movie has the backdrop of a groundhog—named Phil—coming out to see his shadow to predict the coming of spring, and that is what the human Phil must do if he is to transform and get out of this very long winter.

Before that happens, though, Phil realizes he can manipulate his situation with people since he already knows what is going to happen, and they do not.

The Wilderness

Phil continues to refuse to take any responsibility for his life or the rut he is in. Even when he knows exactly where there is a puddle on the ground he continues to step in it over and over again.

“What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same and nothing you did mattered?” That is the question Phil asks a drunk in a bar, who responds “That about sums it up for me.”

That about sums it up is a familiar sentiment for many people in life who are stuck in unhappy circumstances.

Phil asks, “What if there were no tomorrow?” “There wasn’t one today.” He figures out that no tomorrow also means there aren’t any consequences.

At first this knowledge empowers him. He finally misses the puddle, but allows someone else to step in it instead. He also begins being reckless, breaking the law, and using the knowledge that he learns each day to try and win over Rita. He is still acting selfishly for his own gain and does nothing to change or transform himself.

Later he falls into a deep despair. He is in the midst of his wilderness experience and nothing he does, so far, has shifted or changed his world. He is frustrated. In one of his broadcasts he shares, “You want a winter prediction. It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be gray, and it’s going to last you the rest of your life.” Clearly he is having, what in spiritual language is called, “a dark night of the soul.”

He tries over and over again to commit suicide, but with each attempt he continues to wake up each morning to the same day. At first he feels invincible, like “a god”. Yet even the knowledge that he is immortal brings him no peace.

His deepest wilderness comes when he falls in love with Rita and realizes that no matter what he does, or how much he wins her over; she will wake up the next day and not remember any of it. He tells her about waking up to the same day and how difficult it has been. Her response is, “Maybe it’s not a curse—it depends on how you look at it.” This, of course, is the crux of his problem. He needs to shift how he looks at his life in order for him to change his life.

Transformation/Awakening

When he shares his dilemma with her, Rita decides to spend an entire day with him to see if she, too, can experience his time warp. She falls asleep next to him, and Phil speaks to her and confesses his love. He admits to the sleeping Rita that something happened to him the first time he saw her.

Something is beginning to shift inside of Phil. He still wakes up the next morning to find that Rita is gone and it is Groundhog Day again, but something inside of him has changed. During one of his weather broadcasts he tells us that winter is but another step in the cycle of life. He has become real and humble and has finally accepted his life and situation.

He stops judging others, and even asks for their opinions. He treats his cameraman Larry as a worthy co-worker for the first time. He begins doing things, not to manipulate others, but for himself. He learns to play the piano and to sculpt ice, and we can see that his arrogance is gone. He is doing these things, not to manipulate others or win over Rita, but for his own enjoyment. He is finally finding pleasure and joy in life.

He begins to use his day to help others. With his foreknowledge of what is to happen, he passes up spending time with Rita and, instead, goes around the town saving lives and helping others. We see him catch a child falling from a tree, and saving a man from choking in a restaurant.

Over and over again he tries, in vain, to save a homeless man from dying. He seems obsessed with helping this man, and even calls him father and dad. One wonders if there isn’t some unresolved parental issues he is attempting to work out. No matter what he does, the old man dies. Eventually Phil recognizes that he just can’t save everyone; he is not a god, and he finally accepts that there are some things he cannot change. We see the transformation in him during his broadcast the next morning when he says,

“When Chekhov saw the long winter…he saw a winter long and bleak and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney, and basking in their hearths and hearts I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.”

He begins to win over the townspeople who see him as the wonderful, giving man that he has become. He has embraced the qualities that he saw in Rita, and she notices the change in him. Rita is now attracted to him, and when the town holds a bachelor auction, she bids and wins him for the evening.

The moment that shifts everything for him is when he tells Rita, “No matter what happens tomorrow or for the rest of my life—I’m happy now!” He has finally reached a place of total acceptance of the now moment.

Returning Home

Phil’s homecoming is not to a physical place. Phil has transformed from an arrogant, self-centered man to one who is at home in his own self. When he finally comes to that place of peace and acceptance and realizes that he can be happy no matter what tomorrow brings, he finally wakes up to a brand new day with Rita lying beside him. His first sentence in this new day shows how far he has changed. He asks Rita, “Is there anything I can do for you today?”

He and Rita, having fallen in love, decide to stay and settle in Punxsutawney, and no doubt Phil will continue to grow and change, as transformation is never a one-time event, but an ongoing process.