OSCARS 2017!

I love that this year the Oscar Nominations for Best Picture are so diverse and all unique.  There is something for everyone to enjoy.  And lucky for you, most of them are either already on DVD, or soon will be!  I have written about a few of these on Facebook already, but thought I would compile some thoughts and opinions on the Best Picture Nominations.  I have tried to keep it concise so people will actually read it.

Lion, what a story!  And a TRUE story.  It is well directed, well acted and heart-wrenching.  It is a tear jerker, but worth every tear.  Nicole Kidman is fantastic.  She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for this role.

Hidden Figures is another true story that needed to be told.  It is a great movie for the whole family.  I don't think it will win anything, but I am glad it was nominated.

I really liked Hell or High Water.  It is rough (language and violence), but really good if you can handle that stuff. A gritty cat and mouse story about modern day desperate bank robbers who are brothers, one with a good heart and one with a heart of stone, being chased by two Texas rangers who are very different themselves.  It was written by Taylor Sheridan (who wrote Sicario), so it is a little dark, but moving and has some humor.  And it has Chris Pine in it, so I may not be the only woman on earth who enjoys it (wink, wink).

Moonlight is a moving film about a lonely boy desperate to be loved.  It is full of fantastic actors. The three boys that play the main character at different ages look nothing like each other, yet they truly feel like the same person because they are that good.

Hackshaw Ridge starts out pretty corny, and then suddenly at war is over-the-top violent (think opening scene of Saving Private Ryan times 3), so that feels a little odd, but I am a sucker for true stories, and that Desmond Doss is a pretty likable and admirable guy.  A kind hearted Christian who loves the Lord and goes to war to save lives instead of take them.  I am a little surprised this was nominated for Best Picture, but not too surprised Andrew Garfield was nominated for Best Actor.  It is an inspiring movie, and worth sifting through the cheese and flying body parts for his performance.

Manchester by the Sea is one of those movies that will haunt you for days.  It was raw and real. Casey Affleck did an incredible job playing a very complex and gut-wrenching role.  Lucas Hedges plays his nephew and he was so great, he could make you cry and laugh at the same time.

I love Denzel and I love Viola and I wanted to love Fences, but when it was over I just felt empty.  I found their story incredibly depressing, and though the acting was great, it felt like watching a play. Yes, I know it is a play, but this is a movie.  You know how stage actors over-act, since you can't always see their faces and catch subtleties?  Well, this is a play made into a movie, that still felt like a play.  I know it got a lot of praise, and many people loved it, but I didn't.  I think there is a good chance they will win Best Actor/Best Supporting Actress awards for these roles, and they deserve best actor awards because they are great actors, but in this movie the acting just felt overdone to me.

Arrival was a clever story, but I am just not that into Science Fiction.  It will probably win for Production Design or something, because it was impressive, but I would probably not have watched it if it weren't for the Best Picture Nomination.

La La Land is my favorite.  I loved every minute of it.  I thought it was basically perfect and I wouldn't change one thing about it.  I believe it will win in multiple categories, including Best Picture.  (Yes, musicals are allowed to win Best Picture.)  And if you know me, this prediction doesn't surprise you one little bit.

Enjoy the show!

12 Days of Christmas Movies!

Oh, I just can't get enough of Christmas movies!  I love the nostalgia, the family values, the moral lessons, and the hilarity of moments that we can all relate to.  I wanted to share my faves with you, but I had a hard time getting it down to 10, so I went with the 12 days of Christmas theme.  I am not a fan of movies inflicting guilt on kids (and adults) for not believing in Santa, because Christmas is Christmas with or without him after all.  So, I created a list of Dawn's Top 12 Christmas Movies. Santa is not a main character in most of these, except for Elf (because Elf is literally my #2).  I am not going to write a review of each of them, but I'll rank and rate them.  They are in order of my favorites and not all of them are family friendly.  Adults, you have 20+ days to watch these 12 movies.  (We've already watched #12 and #2 and may watch a couple more than once!)  Kids are optional for enjoyment of the family friendly ones.  I guarantee you won't regret watching any of them! Enjoy!

12.  The Muppet Christmas Carol  (G)

11.  A Christmas Story (PG)

10.  A Charlie Brown Christmas (G)

9.  The Family Man (PG-13)

8.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas (PG)

7.  The Nativity Story (PG, with a fairly traumatic delivery of John the Baptist.  My daughter was scarred by that scene when she was about 6.  Recommend for ages 8+.)

6.  Joyeux Noel (PG-13) lots of subtitles #worthit

#5 Christmas Vacation (PG-13) 

#4 Home Alone (PG)

#3 Love Actually (R)

#2 Elf (PG)

#1 It's A Wonderful Life (PG)

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Finding Dory

Thanks to very aggressive marketing, my mostly blind son has been bombarded with talk and hype of Finding Dory for months, and he's become obsessed.  The only movie he has ever watched was Finding Nemo.  And he did like it (enough to sit in front of it for 1.5 hours, which is a tall task for him), but he has a lot of baseline anxiety, so Marlin's anxiety-inducing search for his son was enough to nearly bring him to tears.

Despite this, he could not wait to see Finding Dory.  He has only been speaking English for about a year, so he usually can't keep up with audio description since they talk so fast, but we recently heard about an app called Disney Anywhere that does more simplified voice description through your phone, and we were eager to give it a shot.

The movie was great, as expected.  It was a sweet story with incredible animation (the octopus was genius), and had some good lessons about not only believing in yourself, but about how sometimes your disability can actually be an advantage.  I have kids with dyslexia, ADHD, hearing impairment, and vision impairment, and I can give you ways that each of those things have at one time or another been a blessing.

I read many articles about the movie beforehand, and many blogs stating that it was not a good movie for adopted kids.  Though I value and respected those others' opinions, I personally knew that telling my kids (especially the Dory-obsessed one) that we wouldn't be seeing the movie would not go well at all.  I also knew that I have worried and stressed over other movies warned to me (Annie and Kung Fu Panda 3, most recently) and they turned out to have no negative effects on my adopted daughter.

Basically Dory (because of her short term memory loss) was separated from her parents very young and never could find them again.  There is always loss in adoption.  And some kids feel that loss more than others, I think.  I am very open with my kids about talking about their first moms.  Maybe as they get older, it will become a bigger source of sadness and loss for them, but for now it just seems to be something that is a part of their story, but they don't automatically go there every time I expect them to.  I asked Kate afterwards how she felt during the movie when Dory got lost and couldn't find her parents and she said, "Sad.  I felt sad for her."  But she was quick to laugh at the funny parts, and overall said she loved the movie.

She is also visually impaired, and her favorite character was the near sighted whale shark, Destiny, who kept running into the walls of the aquarium.  (Today at Target she spent her own money to buy her own plush "Destiny," because she can never have too many stuffed animals.) So, I guess I'd say we are a family that doesn't take things too seriously.  I mean we are aware of their pain, and address the loss of adoption, but if that loss makes it hard to watch a movie, then I view it as a bridge of opportunity to bring up some difficult conversations, and talk openly about their feelings.

On Mothers Day I usually will bring up birth moms and have a time to talk and pray for them.  This year, my (then) 9 year old daughter told me that she didn't want to do that.  Why did we have to talk about her?  She really had nothing to do with her anymore.  I said, "But she does!  Without her, we wouldn't have you!  And she loved you.  I am sure she thinks about you, and I think about her enough to honor her with a prayer for her life."

Well that might make more sense to her when she's 12 or 13 than it does now.  But for the short term, I'm going to allow my adopted kids to watch these movies that address loss, pain and sacrificial love so that their little hearts and minds will be stirred to not run from the hard conversations, but to address their feelings-- so that we can tackle them together.

Zootopia

Three cheers for Zootopia!  I absolutely loved this movie.  It was so cute, so fun and heartwarming, and so relevant.  In the political climate of today, a movie showing the effects of fear and prejudice against those who are different from you is so timely.  I assume it was a coincidence because these animated movies take so long to make, but the fact that it came out this year was a very good coincidence in my opinion.  It opens up great conversation to have with your kids about judging others and seeing beyond one's outer appearance, and hopefully some adults will learn some lessons as well.  It is a really great movie that the entire family will love.  (Even the dad that usually falls asleep in any animated film.)  It is still in regular theaters, but will probably hit the dollar movie next week since it will be out on DVD on June 7.  I highly recommend it!  A+

Top 10 Sports Movies for the WHOLE Family

Movie Night in the Seabolt house lately has had a sports theme.  Since Sam discovered Rocky back in the fall, we have been on a sports movie kick.  Not all sports movies are family friendly, obviously, and some were better back when we were kids (like Karate Kid).  Rocky is the only one I find truly timeless.  Some are great, but not super family friendy (Creed, 42, Rudy, Race).

I thought I would compile a list for you all of my top 10 family friendly, awesome sports movies. These are all great, rated PG or G, with many lessons and stand-up-and-cheer moments. Pretty sure all of them (except Rocky) are even based on true events.  A few of them are based in the 1970's with lots of fun music.  I didn't really rate them, but they are all really good and you and your kids are sure to enjoy them.  Obviously, there are more great sports movies out there, but this will be a good list for those of you with young kids who like sports but not bad words or dirty scenes.  I'm not saying there aren't any bad words, but they are pretty tame.  Go line up your Netflix Queue and enjoy!  Once you've watched a few, you'll find a theme: I love underdogs!

The Jungle Book

Is the new adaptation of The Jungle Book good for kids?  Well, don't expect the light, charming ride that was the original.  This one is intense, sometimes dark and full of adventure.  One long scene inparticular was quite scary.  My kids were holding onto me more in this than they did in The Force Awakens. The story was similar to the original, with a few fun changes.  It was amazing how real the animals and scenery were.  The whole thing was filmed in a studio in LA. The animals were mostly puppets and computer animation, but you would never know it.  John Favreau directed an all-star cast.  Idris Elba as Shere Khan, Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, Lupita Nyong'o as Mowgli's wolf mama, Scarlett Johansson was Kaa the snake, Christopher Walken was perfect as King Louie, and Bill Murray made the movie as Baloo.  I wish there had been more music, but the 2 songs were good.  I loved the new ending. When we left, I asked my two 9-year-olds if they would recommend it for ages 8 and up.  My son said, "An 8 year old would have to be crazy-brave to enjoy that."  So, we would recommend it for Ages 9+, unless they're crazy-brave.

Creed

This movie was the surprise of the year for me.  I didn't even know it was coming out until a couple of months ago.  My 9 year old son has gotten into boxing and the Rocky movies recently, so we have watched nearly all of them in the past 6 months.  If you've seen them, you know... they start out awesome, and then go downhill.  Well, guess what?  They came back with Creed and TOTALLY REDEEMED THEMSELVES!  This movie was GREAT.

Directed by Ryan Coogler of Fruitvale Station-- awesome movie starring Michael B. Jordan, who was amazing in that and awesome in this.  And Sylvester Stallone was so, so good as Rocky. The Rocky from #1 & #2 who we loved for his goofball charm and pet turtles.  He still has the same strut and played the character so well, even at 69.  He is nominated for Best Supporting Actor and he has my vote.

The story is so well done, only slightly corny, and thoroughly entertaining. It had enough connections to the original to make it nostalgic, but was updated enough to feel fresh.  There is an amazing street running scene that it so cool.  I must worn you though, you might cry.