Thursday, March 1, 2018

Zoe vs. the Oscars 2018

The Academy Awards are this weekend, so that means it's time for my fifth annual roundup of all the movies nominated for Best Picture. This go-round I've actually seen TWO of the nine movies nominated.
And I've seen FOUR of the nine nominated in 2017. Where's my Oscar?
So now it's time to sum up each movie, having only actually seen Dunkirk and Get Out, and show how each reflects my life with Zoe.

Oscars 2018


Darkest Hour: Sometimes as a parent you just don't know if you should negotiate or go to war. Sometimes things seem bleakest just before the dawn because you haven't slept any of the actual dark hours and now there's no point since you have to get ready to go to work. And then sometimes, after a night without sleep, you don't even look like yourself but not in a way that'll give anyone an award for Best Makeup or Costume.

Dunkirk: Parenthood as a story of survival including struggles with evacuating. Enough said.

The Shape of Water: I read that the lead female character is a voiceless, isolated woman who spends a lot of time cleaning a place where there's a strange mysteriously wet creature who's like something out of science fiction, and I gotta say I relate.

How high the bath water has to get before a child will turn it off.

The Post: Did you say blog post? Sometimes it's hard to bring you, dear reader, the truth as an agent of inestimable power works against me in overt as well as covert ways.

Call Me By Your Name: Ok, so it's a coming-of-age story but otherwise it's a stretch to connect with Zoe's and my life since a gay male romance set in Italy is a far cry from our day-to-day. However, I do relate to the seeming confusion expressed by the title, since some days I forget my own name and Zoe's and end up whisper-yelling some other kid's name in a church.

Phantom Thread: Daniel Day-Lewis plays a person whose carefully tailored life is disrupted by love. (Aw!)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: A dark comedy with refusals to back down and unsolved crimes is a fair description of my life; only the cursing is internal because I keep it PG.

Get Out: What a useful phrase! Applied to so many scenarios since I've become Zoe's mom. Get out of my bed! My room! My jewelry box! Get out of that mound of dirt and go play on an actual park apparatus like all the norms! Or how about, we're leaving, get your shoes on and get out the door! It's a warning, a directive. And a reminder to be paranoid as I wonder why does she keep gesturing that way with her spoon is she trying to hypnotize me?

My expression when Zoe says something that mortifies me
except, unlike the character in the movie, sinking into the floor would've been blessed relief.


Lady Bird: A strong-willed daughter versus her strong-willed mother. An outspoken young person asserting her individuality. Lady Bird can be critical of what she loves but deep down her critique is a mask for her loving attention to her subject.

Zoe: 179; Universe: 0


 If you enjoyed this post, you may like this one.

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