Keep an open mind..

"Murray Kravitz!" read  the group text today, started  by  our fictional  friend, Murray Kravitz.. 

"Merry Christmas indeed!" we answered, knowing WE'RE not the ones rushing out for last minute gifts and unavailable parking spots  at the mall, or worrying about tumbled trees from curious cats. WE'RE not stressing over the reaction from the women in our lives who we're going to  regift with bathrobes and candles.  We don't  have to care about burnt ham or drunken uncles, because we celebrate differently.

Well..SOME of us do. .

I have always LOVED Christmas, delighting in  the lights, listening to the delicious, jazzy score from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on a constant loop, happily taping some cash to the trash can hoping that only the sanitation workers and not raccoons open the envelope..it's all wonderful.

I gleefully anticipate  the "Jewish Christmas"..I associate it with an annual  good movie and a great Asian fusion meal.

I start Oscar watching in early November, just like most film aficionados do, and we've pretty much seen everything that's been released.

As of now, the Best Actress Oscar seems to be Lily Gladstone's to lose, and she was exceptional, as was her movie, "Killers of the Flower Moon" but I could hear myself saying to Jim when the telecast is over, "Gladstone won!" but what I'll ACTUALLY  be saying is, "Glad STONE won!" as in Emma, Emma Stone, who was absolutely spectacular in "Poor Things."

We saw the movie yesterday and I expected to despise it. 

 I hate movies that take place decades/centuries  before I was born, hate hard to understand foreign accents, dislike sci fi in general, and I hate the director, Yorgos Lanthimos. (based solely on his filmography)

But..the movie I HAD to see because of the Oscar buzz was, in a nutshell..terrific!

It is NOT for everyone.  It is sick, and depraved, and sexually shocking, and the cinematography is both stunning and dizzying, but we laughed and we cringed and we totally loved it.

Emma Stone is MAGNIFICENT as the manufactured  woman/child Bella Baxter, with her quirky speech and jerky moves.  (And, because I'm a bitch, at one point I whispered to Jim that her robotic dancing as Bella was better than it was, unintentionally,  as Mia Dolan in "La La Land')

Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo were outstanding as well.

But be forewarned:  You need to go with an open mind..the same open mind you'll see on that cold steel  table in the mad scientist's lab.

On the ride home, I'm  thinking it'll come down to a coin flip, at least for me, between Lily Gladstone and Emma Stone for Best Actress, and after streaming another contender last night, I was thinking that somebody now  needs to manufacture a three-sided coin, because we saw an absolutely  riveting performance from German actress  Sandra  Huller in "Anatomy of a Fall."

This was a totally engrossing courtroom drama, with some dull spots in the middle, but with a solid beginning and an ambiguous conclusion.  Sandra's character of a  writer named  Sandra is a marvel to behold..it reminded me of the volatile communication between the husband and wife of the classic Bergman film, "Scenes From a Marriage."

Again, we've seen pretty much  everything..but  Best Actress  is the one I'm most excited about for award season..

 And that's not even adding Carey Mulligan to the mix.  She was outstanding in "Maestro"..as was front runner Bradley Cooper, although neither of us LOVED the movie..just the performances.

"The Holdovers" is still my personal favorite movie of 2023, but it's been a really good year for movies in general, at least compared to last year.

Today we'll stream "Dream Scenario" to see what all the fuss about Nicolas Cage is .. then it's  Christmas Day with George Clooney.

For those of you who are actually celebrating the holiday, may this Christmas be a joyful and merry one.

For the rest of us:  Festivus!!

(And save me the aisle seat)