Golden Globe Predictions 2011/2012

E: Ah, the Golden Globes.   They’re so tricky.  We’ve got comedies, and we’ve got dramas, but sometimes it’s not an easy thing to tell the difference.  I’m only making guesses; it could easily turn out that what I think is a comedy isn’t, and vice versa.  (Who’d have called The Tourist as a comedy last year?)   The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (the givers of Hollywood’s second most prestigious and long standing movie awards) have complicated tastes.  They love the big stars.  Sometimes, they’ll toss in an extra nomination just to have somebody glitzy at their party.  Sometimes they’ll nominate completely insane movies (see again: The Tourist) for the same reason.  But they also like being a little edgy.  They love anointing the next big thing.  They like movies with a little less bombast than the Academy;  they’ll go for Sense and Sensibility over Braveheart. Sometimes, they’ll decide someone’s really a lead actor when their studio has deemed them insufficiently famous to make that category.  All of which makes them an odd blend of predictable and surprising.

Thursday morning, all the speculation will end.  Thursday morning, we’ll know the answers.  Meantime, here are my best guesses about the bunch of folks in the hunt:

Oscar Talk: True Grit

E: I’m not a fan of Westerns.  And I can really take or leave the Coen brothers.  O Brother Where Art Thou?  More, please.  No Country For Old Men?  Now that lefts a sour taste in my mouth.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen famous original True Grit.  And I’ve never read the Charles Portis novel on which both versions are based.

But damn it if I didn’t absolutely love this movie.

And you know why, don’t you?  Mattie Ross is a heroine for the ages.  Mattie Ross, the young teen who sets out to avenge her father’s murder, is serious, upright and feisty.  She’s smart, brave, and a fearless negotiator.  Heck, I just like the way she says her name.  As Arthur Abbot of The Holiday would put it, she’s got gumption.

Oscar Nomination Predictions 2011

E: It’s the most wonderful time of the year!    Its a bit like getting a second Christmas; there’s just something about the days before the Oscar nominations come out.  Ah, the wild speculations!  Will there be dreadful snubs?  Shocking additions to the expected field?  Will my favorites sneak in?  Don’t get me wrong, I love the show it self, but for me, it’s all about the nominations.

So without further delay, this is what I think you’ll be hearing early tomorrow morning.

Relatively Entertaining: One-Year Anniversary

M: June 22, 2010 marks the one-year anniversary of our first post, and we thought that we’d celebrate.  We decided to follow the lead of one of our favorite ice cream makers, Ben and Jerry’s, who give out free ice cream on the company’s birthday.  So today, all content on the site is completely free!!!

OK, so the whole site’s free… but hey, we’re doing what we can.  We did consider what to do for the anniversary, and decided to share some things with you that we’ve found interesting over the past year.  You see, one of the services WordPress provides is allowing us to see what search engine terms have led people to our blog.  Most of these search phrases are very straightforward and make perfect sense, like “relatively entertaining, ” “quibbling siblings” or something we’ve reviewed, like “you can’t take it with you” or “the good wife.”  However, there are some searches that stand out, and make us wonder either how that term led to us, why the person searching for it clicked on our link, or what the hell they were actually looking for.

E: Throughout the year, M has kept track of the searches that amused him.  Now we present to you a list of our favorite head-scratchers, oddities, and goofball ways people have found us in the last year.

Not Your Average Christmas Movies

If it’s Christmas you celebrate, you probably have your favorite books, movies, or CDs that you pull out every December.  At the old Quibbling homestead there’s a record of the Chipmunk’s “Christmas Don’t Be Late” just waiting to hit the turnstile… if anyone could find it.  While we all have our favorites, though, one can start to feel overexposed to the Christmas media standards.  If you’d like to sit down by the roaring fire with your cup of wassail and put on a flick that isn’t It’s A Wonderful Life or A Christmas Carol (though Relatively Entertaining loves both) then this is the post for you.

These are movies which, though not exactly in the Christmas canon (and that’s canon with a small ‘c’, thus not the Trans Siberian Orchestra song), but have a touch of that spirit.  While they’re good all year long, now’s the time when we especially feel like renting them or pulling them off the shelves. And we think you might too.

So in case instead of last minute shopping, you’re looking for some last minute viewing, here you go…