Closer, Sideways

watched two movies in the last three days.. both excellent, awards-nominated productions. Closer, with Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen was a very slickly made satire on modern relationships.. it did tend to be very graphic at times.. but the one word we all left the theatre muttering was 'dysfunctional'!! every one of the four main characters was busy screwing (in both senses of the word!) every one else.. it does shake any sort of belief in the whole western concept of relationships.. natalie portman and clive owen fully deserved their Oscar nominations and Golden Globes for supporting roles.. julia roberts was refreshing to see again, while i was quite disappointed with jude law's character, who seemed to get screwed over once too often.

then today we watched Sideways, winner of six Independent Spirit awards. it was an independent, small-budget film too and i could understand why it was the lightweight underdog at the Oscars.. they always have one of these kind of films at the Oscars, then one of the Million Dollar Baby types, and one of The Aviator types.. three very different film genres.

Sideways was actually quite a lot of fun, a little less of the slapstick variety of jokes, though it did have its 'rolling in the aisles' moments, and a very different take on relationships than in Closer. though, i was very glad to be closer in age to the Closer folk than the Sideways folk! i would heartily recommend both movies actually, preferably seen within a small time window to heighten the experience!