Howdy Y’all. Academy Awards countdown is down to the last day. One film up for the nomination of Best Picture is the based on true events Frost/Nixon.

Now, when I first saw this trailer I didn’t think it looked good. My reason: that guy looks nothing like Richard Nixon. The filmmakers could have easily added a more menacing nose and a better makeup job, but they chose not to and instead focused on the humanity and personality of the only president to resign. I was pleasantly surprised by what I was able to take from the film.

The film takes place several years after the disgraced president resigned from office due to allegations related to the Watergate scandal. It shows how the interviews between Nixon and Frost took place, and what each of the two was hoping to attain from the television special. Nixon wanted to redeem himself, and Frost wanted to be the one who would get an apology out of the president. Both come out of the interviews feeling like they had gained something, and nobody really loses in the situation.

Frost/Nixon paints a real portrait of someone who is looked down upon across the nation, and who has to live with the guilt of taking advantage of his powerful position. Just think. There used to be corrupt politicians in the 1970s. Weird to think about right? Nothing like today. Oh, wait, what’s up Blago? Who knows, maybe we’ll see a film documenting Blagojevich’s run on the talk show circuit, and have him finally apologize for being such an idiot. I feel bad for our former governor because it must feel terrible to have the country hate you. I would like to hear his side of the story, even though I wont believe him until he shows some remorse. Oh, and I forgot about George Bush. Georgie also had to break a few laws to get what he wanted for the good of the country, and took Nixon’s “it’s not illegal if the president does it” motto to heart. Many want to see him tried for his supposed crimes, and this film is able to show the side of a man who has made mistakes and knows that he has. Nixon is shown in a light in which we can feel for the guy, and understand the pain and regret that he must have felt up until his death.

Wow, okay I must apologize. This film is sadly not playing anywhere in the Champaign-Urbana area. I recommend that you find an alternative means of viewing the film, and definitely pick it up once it comes out for rent. I’m going to start doing a rating system to let you know how I feel about this movie. I give this film 4 out of 5 V for Victory signs as I board my airplane to take me away from the white house.

What up y’all? So it’s the 7 day countdown til the Academy Awards…yay! I guess that’s exciting. Well since a lot of your haven’t seen many of the movies that are up for nominations, I want to look inside some of the better ones that you should get around to seeing some time. Today, I thought I’d let you know about one of the movies this year starrring Kate Winslet, The Reader.

There are a couple of interesting things about Kate Winslet being nominated for her acting role in this film in particular. At the Golden Globes, she was remembered as giving an emotional acceptance speech not for this film, but for her other Revolutionary Road, aka her ten year reunion with Leo. Another funny thing about this film, in which she plays a former guard of concentration camps and who has an affair with a 15-year-old later in her life, is that in an episode of Ricky Gervais’ HBO series Extras, a very foul-mouthed and inappropriate Winslet remarks on that fact that the only way she’ll ever win an Oscar is if she does a film about the Holocaust. Well, despite purposely acting as an “unprofessional” actress, she might be right about this win.

As I said before, the story is told from the point of view of Michael Berg, played by Ralph Fiennes, looking back on his love affair with Hannah Schmitz when he was just 15-years-old in Germany, and his memories of reading books to her while she listened attentively. Nearly a decade after this love affair, while he’s in law school, he attends a criminal trial in which women are under charges of having killed many people in a concentration camp. What he finds is that his first love is on trial as being the head of the guards and the focus of much scrutiny from both the judges and the onlookers in the courtroom. Berg feels a deep emotional connection with Schmitz and wants so much for his love to not be guilty. He deals with the demons of how much he cares for her but also what actions she is being accused of as a member of the Nazi Party. After the trial, Berg disregards what she has done in the past, and continues to care about her throughout their time growing older.

Having this been Valentine’s Day weekend, it brings the question about: Can you love someone that has done bad things in their past? This answer should be either very easy or hard to answer. But it asks what kinds of bad things have they done? Have they exterminated a whole race of people? If so, it might be hard to care for them as much as you used to. This dilemma in which Berg must deal with nags him for the majority of his life. He has conflicting emotions about this woman that changed his life from such a young age, and has since made him the man that he had become. As in the song by Peter, Bjorn and John “Young Folks” the singer asks, “If you knew my story word for word, had all my history, would you go along with someone like me?” Is the past really important, or is it the character of someone in the present that matters the most? It is a hard question to answer, but Berg comes to his conclusion in his adulthood.

Both Fiennes and Winslet give truly great performances and bring to the story realism, by addressing complex human emotions for one another, and a more human look at the conflicts that arise within an individual. The film is a must-see if you want to see an original story. It is now playing at Boardman’s Art Theatre.

On February 22, the 81st Annual Academy Awards will be airing on ABC network. I don’t know how excited you may be, or if you even plan on watching it, but I probably wont get around to it. I’ve never been one for the award show. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Do these people really have to have all these different groups vote for them as the best performance in the movie industry for a given year? It seems that nominations are biased and winners are usually undeserving of the golden statue. With that being said, watch the Oscars if you like movie stars being glorified for getting paid loads of money for such hard work. Being an actor is very stressful….just ask Christian Bale.

But, sometimes these award shows get it right and recognize work that is worth being acknowledged. This year, Richard Jenkins is nominated for best actor in a leading role for his part in the movie The Visitor. You may recognize him as the deceased dad from Six Feet Under or more recently as the lovesick manager of the fitness center in Burn After Reading. I’ve always liked this man’s performances in all of his movies.

In the movie The Visitor, Jenkins plays Prof. Walter Vale, a widowed professor who finds little joy in anything and is bored in his job. After traveling to New York for a business conference, he goes to his apartment, an apartment that he rarely ever visits anymore after his wife’s death, and finds that a couple have made it their own residence in his absence. The couple was scammed into buying the house thinking that it didn’t belong to anyone. Though Vale wants them to leave, he finds it in himself to let them stay in the apartment long enough for them to search for somewhere else to live. The couple, Tarek and Zanaib, are both illegal immigrants in the country and are always on the lookout and be careful as to not get in trouble with the law. This chance encounter changes the lives of all involved in the apartment. Through Tarek, Jenkins finds passion in learning how to play the African drum. Tarek, on the other hand, finds that it’s a hard life to live being an illegal immigrant in the U.S.

The films focus on immigration regulation and race relations really strikes a note with the state of our country today. When we are going through one of the worst economic crises of our history, immigration is still viewed as a problem that must be dealt with when in reality there are much bigger fish to fry. It also gets to the heart of completely different people being able to learn from each other and enjoy one another’s company. This movie surprised me in many ways and definitely sold me on Jenkins’ performance. I hope he wins.