1) Brokeback Mountain : ***1/2 out of 4. I enjoyed it very much. I was impressed at how quiet and spare it was. There were a lot of gay cowboy jokes out there because of the movie. It was the point of the movie, but I didn’t feel it was especially overstated. Effing A, it was an R-rated movie, not a gay porno. I did find it a little hard to believe Jake Gyllenhall or Heath Ledger as cowboys and frankly, the topless scene with the Princess Diaries girl was just trippy.
2) Capote: ***1/2. Another good movie. We saw this one today. I really like Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener. I’d heard enough Truman Capote imitations to not be surprised by the voice. I’d read an article in Vanity Fair a few months ago about the time when he wrote In Cold Blood. I wish I still had that issue so I could re-read it. Great performances all around. I present this one as the Oscar alternative.
We’re hoping to see Good Night and Good Luck tomorrow. If we manage that, then at least one of us will have seen every Best Picture nominee this year except Crash. Gene saw Munich one day while I was at work. Scrolling through the nominees for this year’s Oscars, it looks like we’ll have done well this year. The exception looks like Best Actress, but at least we saw Walk the Line, which was very good. Everyone says that she’s the front runner this year.