Freedom, Updates, and the Oscars

It is over. I am done. No. Free. Yeah. That’s the word: Free. After four years of non-education, I am finally alive again. I can’t describe the happiness. It’s like being released from prison, except prisons have better cafeteria food. Am I being too harsh to my soon-to-be Alma Mater? Enroll in my college for one semester, and you’d agree that I’m not being harsh enough.

The college itself is incompetent, but I met a few great people during my stay there. My estimate is that for each dozen dismal professors, there is one professor who exemplifies legitimate intellect. Why they agreed to teach in such a sad, crumbling institution is beyond me. The economy? Blackmail? Who knows? I don’t even know how I ended up there in the first place.

Batch 2013

I made friends with a handful of quick-witted people who always seem to be conscious of their surroundings. We are different in many ways – in philosophies, in background, in opinions – but I think we all agree that our college is the closest thing to hell we’ve ever been to. For the sake of graduating, we just smile, do our homework, and keep our thoughts to ourselves. Come graduation day, which is in a month, I’ll be putting on that smile again. To those who are actually studying in an adequate school, allow me to share with you a little wisdom from good ‘ol Roger Ebert that kept me sane:

“Don’t train for a career–train for a life. The career will take care of itself, and give you more satisfaction than a surrender to corporate or professional bureaucracy. If you make careers in that world, you will be more successful because your education was not narrow.”

Anyway, one of the greatest rewards that will come out of my graduation is that, on top of my full-time work, I’ll be able to post regularly here again. I thought my Movie Journal could keep me semi-active while I finish my remaining units, but the final stretch of school was a lot more time-consuming than I anticipated. But as Rancho of “3 Idiots” always like to say while holding his fist against his chest: “All Izz Well”. My first review of 2013 will be “Jack the Giant Slayer”. I initially wanted to review “Silver Linings Playbook”, which has just been released here, but I figured not a lot of people will be interested in a review of a movie that was released in the U.S. over three months ago.

Now I move on to the most important part of this post. I plan to start over with a different website. My site’s name will be changed. A tagline will be included. There will be a more organized navigation bar. (Where in the hell did this site’s navigation bar disappear to anyway?) There will be more variety in posts. And so on. I have lots of plans. But that’s all they are so far: Plans. I’ll keep posting here while I look for help and resources, but as soon as the site is up, I’ll be transferring all my reviews there, and this site will simply become another wasteland in the vast universe of the Internet.

About the future site’s name, how does Film Hound sound? Right now, I personally think that a third word is missing. Film Hound Joint? Film Hound Suite? Film Hound Central? One friend suggested Film Hound Infobahn, but I’m still breeding ideas in my head. The tagline will be “Fighting for Better Movies”, that’s for sure. It has been with me since I started this site, and it just feels right as the summary of my, mission, if that’s what you call it.

Before I talk about the Oscars, I have to announce that I wasn’t able to watch the show at all. I was at work during the live telecast and I couldn’t find a replay when I got home. So I’ll only be able to discuss my thoughts about the nominees and some of the winners because … Damn it, YouTube!… not many clips are available online.

Because my country has issues with independent films and foreign language films, I’ve yet to see “Beasts of the Southern Wild”, “Silver Linings Playbook”, “Django Unchained”, and “Amour”. But considering the nominees that I have seen, I would say that Argo deserved its Best Picture Oscar, although a part of me wanted “Life of Pi” to win, even though its narrative is flawed. The middle stages of Ang Lee’s latest film are pure cinema magic. When I found out that Ben Affleck wasn’t even nominated for Best Director… Damn it, Oscar!… I was pretty sure that Lee would win. Fudge muffins! I should’ve Tweeted about it! I could have had proof!

That Daniel Day-Lewis won his record-setting third Oscar for Best Lead Actor was no surprise. The moment he was nominated, I was thinking ahead when I asked myself: “Will he go for a 4^th win?” “Lincoln” was a great film because Steven Spielberg doesn’t compromise on his material. He respects the story he’s telling and believes that its power is enough to move us, to educate us. In the screening I attended, I noticed that a few members of the audience were bored of all the talking and arguing. What were they expecting from a movie about the Thirteenth Amendment? Explosions?

That’s all I have to say for now. My life is about to experience a major change, and I’m looking forward to it, so far. I’ll get to watch more movies now more than ever, so I can’t complain. I’ll attend the 8:15 PM screening of “Jack the Giant Slayer” on Saturday. In the meantime, here is one of those funny cat videos on the Internetz.