A play blog about movies?!

Well . . . yes. There is nothing like theater, but since I had very little exposure to it in my youth, and since I spent virtually every Sat. afternoon at the movie theater, well . . . yes, this post is mostly about movies.

SAG voting is nearing and I've been catching up. Some very good films this year: The Fighter, The Social Network, True Grit, Rabbit Hole (should have been nominated for cast instead of The Kids are All Right, if you ask me), to name but a few; and then the mind blower of the bunch: Black Swan, a truly visionary piece; difficult? Yes. Daring? Double yes. Provocative? I'll say. But also one of the truest visions of what people do for their art on film (not literal truth, but metaphorical . . .ok?).

Natalie Portman gets my vote for leading lady. Before seeing Black Swan I was leaning toward Nicole Kidman, taking nothing away from the other ladies nominated, she had the good fortune to have the best script to work with, and I thought she was quite wonderful. But Natalie Portman did for me in Black Swan what Christian Bale did for me in The Fighter; they aren't performances, they are transformations . . . no one else even comes close.

For leading man, my hat is tipped in the direction of Colin Firth, who I thought was superb in The Kings Speech (I might have gone for Geoffrey Rush as well if not for the aforementioned Mr. Bale).

Supporting woman has to be Melissa Leo in The Fighter (and I think Barbara Hershey could have been nominated for Black Swan as well while we're at it).

Supporting man is, if you haven't gleaned it already Christian Bale . . . no one else comes close.

For the cast, SAG's best picture equivalent; earlier in the year I would have thought The Social Network was the one to beat, and it was beautifully well done; then I saw The King's Speech and thought that was pretty special (Colin Firth especially); but then The Fighter . . . wow . . . what an ensemble, and it was one of those rare instances where it really was an ensemble, they worked off each other so well . . . I'll have to buy that one when it comes out. Black Swan? Nice work all round, and if it wins the best picture Oscar I won't quibble because it is daring film making . . . BUT . . . the SAG awards are for acting not film making per se . . . so I'll have to go with The Fighter for Performance by a cast.

Who got robbed? I would have liked to see Matt Damon get nominated for Hereafter, beautiful work. I also thought that Aaron Eckhart (who I'm not a major fan of) deserved a nomination for Rabbit Hole, he really hit it out of the park. Also, SAG has nothing to do with screenplays, but if Rabbit Hole isn't nominated for screen play they will have to answer to me (I noted that the Golden Globes passed it by).

That's it. Wonderful year for actors . . . some nice performance by actresses, but not too many that were that stunning in the lead category . . . nice to get a vote though.

Now play news:

I ran lines for Old Hickory while running again yesterday. Still a couple of rough patches, but I'll get out the script and dust it off . . . I foresee no problem there; still have to decide whether to add to it or not . . .

Also did about three hours of work on the new two hander as well . . . I hope this one works because I like it a lot.

Enough for now . . . a moment of two to consider Dr. King tomorrow isn't a bad idea; he changed the world . . . or at least chipped away at some of the uglier bits.