A lovely film about food and love. Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel have great chemistry together, and Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire has a huge career ahead of her. PREDICTIONS: best foreign film and cinematography nominations. Don’t go when you’re hungry.
…and while I enjoyed this movie a lot, I probably didn’t appreciate this movie as much as I would have thanks to issues completely beyond the control of the film.
Issue one: The Taste of Things is a movie takes its time, letting the audience quietly observe as incredible meals are meticulously and lovingly created. That’s great, except I saw Perfect Days, an even more quiet, meticulous and loving exploration of one man’s life, yesterday. In comparison, The Taste of Things felt action packed.
Issue two: the woman who thought that standing in the hallway where she couldn’t see the film meant she could talk on the phone and the audience wouldn’t hear her.
Bonus Movie: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
I like Wes Anderson’s short films better than his full length features. All of his flash and affectations get time to shine without getting too tedious. This is an odd duck, though. It’s sort of an illustrated reading of Dahl’s short story. Actors play multiple roles, and it makes no attempt at realism. Has Anderson ever directed an actual play? I wonder if he’d be good at it, or lean too heavily into actors facing the audience reciting their lines. PREDICTION: Won’t win best short this year.
My Movie Stats
Counting shorts, I have seen 24 films this year. That’s 3.36 films a week, or one film every 2.08 days.
Oscar-nominee specific stuff:
- Every best picture
- 4/5 Best Actor (I’ll get you, Colman Domingo)
- 5/5 Best Supporting Actor
- 4/5 Best Actress (well, 4.25 out of 5, since Katherine watched Nyad and I was in the room for a lot of it)
- 3/5 Best Supporting Actress
- 5/5 Director
- 2/5 Animated Feature, but I plan to watch Robot Dreams this week
Maybe I’ll actually watch the Academy Awards this year. I haven’t done that since dinosaurs roamed the Earth.