Siskel, Ebert, Roeper and Brown

My Oscar picks:

Best Actor Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain
Best Actress Felicity Huffman - Transamerica
Best Supporting Actor Matt Dillon - Crash
Best Supporting Actress Rachel Weisz - The Constant Gardener
Best Cinematography Good Night and Good Luck
Best Editing The Constant Gardener
Best Picture I just can't decide!

Now that that important piece of business is out of the way, I can give my reviews of a few movies I've seen recently.

Broken Flowers - Much better story than Lost in Translation, same great acting by Bill Murray, but certainly not a memorable flick.
*Surprise Bonus * - Jeffrey Wright co-stars. (and he's awesome, as usual!)

Transamerica - This was a very entertaining film. Slow to start, but once it did, I was in it for the long haul. I have been cautioned against calling it a comedy, although I did have several LOL moments, not to mention much post-movie chuckling! As mentioned above, F. Huffman out-acted all of the Best Actress nominees by leaps and bounds. As an actress, I cannot begin to imagine playing a pre-operative, transgender man! But she more than pulled it off. (And the kid that played her son was a little hottie, as a surprise bonus.)

Something New - Exceeded my expectations, for sure. This was a solid movie and quite a refreshing love story. We could go on and on about how much Kenya (the main character, played by Sanaa Lathan) and I have in common. But we all know that flexibility and spontaneity are not my strong suits. And we all know that (most of) my life is ruled by lists. So feel free to make the comparison in your own time, I'm going to review the movie in mine.

Going into the picture, I expected great performances from Sanaa Lathan and Alfre Woodard - they are both very classy ladies, and they never dissapoint (even when they're in mediocre movies). I had no idea what to expect from the other characters, though. Well, I guess if I'm honest, I should rephrase that...I was bracing myself for some Hollywood style, steryotypical, foolishness.

What a pleasant surprise. Kenya's parents were very accurately portrayed as a loving, down-to-earth, slightly henpecked husband and a wife, to whom status & affiliation means everything. Together they raised 2 very well educated and successful children and they are rightfully proud. Kenya's brother was a young law school graduate with a sparkly new convertible luxury car and a sparkly new date each time we saw him. Kenya's friends were the friends you expect her to have - professional young women who are honest with each other and themselves about their dating prospects.

I don't want to give away too much more about the characters and their storyline. I will say that I identified with this movie in a way that I haven't since The Best Man and Love Jones. I look forward to the day when ordinary black people's lives, their loves & losses, their collective experiences, frustrations and dreams, become a part of mainstream America. I look forward to the day when quality movies about ordinary black people do not come as a surprise to me. I look forward to the day when there are so many mainstream television shows, plays and movies featuring ordinary black people, that the Medea/Tyler Perrys, the Soul Planes and the Baby Boys become the anomaly. I hope it happens during my lifetime.