Casey's inaugural post.

"There's nothing like curling up with a good Brooke"

So, having been introduced as a co-contributor, it's time I get my blog on. It seems best to take the 60 minutes approach to things: Brooke will provide the news; I'm Andy Rooney. For my first post let's cover one of my favorite activities: watching movies. Brooke and I are kind of movie nerds. I like to seek out good movies that many people haven't seen, because then I get indie-cred and am more interesting at parties, or would be if I got invited to parties. So if you want to know the best Danish World War II spy movie, I'm your man (Flame and Citron!). If you ask about other good Danish films, then I will casually direct the conversation elsewhere to, say the best French World War II spy movie (L'armée des ombres!), thus implying that I could name Danish genre pieces all day but who would confine themselves so narrowly? The point is, let's talk about Oscar nominees! (and the award for best segue goes to...)

So far Brooke and I have seen many of the major Best Picture nominees.We still want to see The Fighter (supposedly the best boxing movie since Rocky IV: Rocky Wins the Cold War) and The King's Speech, which is supposed to be good but loses points because it apparently pretends that Churchill didn't support George VI's Nazi-loving brother. Oops. (I've noticed that Americans nowadays tend to like Churchill a lot more than British voters did, but that's another topic). Also need to see Winter's Bone and The Kids are All Right, but those won't win anyway.

For me, the best picture last year was Black Swan. Holy fracking-scary-ballerina crap that movie was a trip. Natalie Portman was amazing, the cinematography was just gorgeous, and basically everything about the movie made me happy (read: deeply unsettled. This movie beats any "BOO LOUD MUSIC CRASH" horror movie you've seen.) Right behind that is 127 Hours: For what basically amounts to a one-man show in a single, confined setting, the movie had so much verve and energy, totally characteristic of its director, Danny Boyle (Aside: Boyle is one of my favorite directors. He's tackled so many different genres and topics, from drug addiction and sci-fi to zombies, Bollywood, and family-oriented heist shows involving deceased Saints, and every single one has been a winner). Plus 127 Hours has one of the most intense scenes of any movie you'll ever see, and if you watch it you'll know exactly what I mean. Third is the The Social Network, which will probably end up winning the real thing. It's a good show but my most vivid memory of it is is watching the movie in the theater with my then-fiancee and afterwords having a huge bearded stranger in overalls advise me to marry that pretty girl as soon as I could. Also there's True Grit, a great Western and hands-down winner of Fewest Contractions in an Adapted Screenplay, and Toy Story 3, which gets the Pixar stamp of guaranteed quality. And this lesser known film about a guy who steals dreams or something... Inscription... something like that. You probably haven't heard of it; it's by the guy who did Bat Man In all seriousness, The Woman on the Street* will probably pick Inception because she hasn't seen any of the others (thanks to the MPAA and Spencer W Kimball if the street happens to be in Provo), but while Inception is good, it's not as good as you thought it was the first time. Promise.

And that's it. I could also go on about other good movies from previous years that everybody should see, but that can wait until another day.

*because i love us is committed to gender equality