Photo at left: receiving an award at Columbia Gorge Film Festival
It seems like everyone is making lists of the Ten Best and Ten Worst of whatever...This isn't one of those. It's a list of the best things that I saw/did/experienced this past year.
One thing that won't be on the list: favorite movies. That's because I haven't seen most of the good ones that came out recently (The King's Speech, The Social Network, The Fighter, or any of those other movies whose title starts with the word "the").
1. Best New Broadway Play: Red by John Logan, starring Alfred Molina as Mark Rothko and Eddie Redmayne as his assistant. I loved this play from start to finish, but especially the quasi-dance as the 2 men paint a large red canvas together.
2. Best Broadway Revival: A View From the Bridge by Arthur Miller, starring Liev Schreiber, Scarlett Johansson, and Jessica Hecht. I must admit that I'd probably like any play Liev Schreiber is in. But this was great.
3. Best Off-Broadway Play: Trust by Paul Weitz, starring Zach Braff, Bobby Cannevale, Sutton Foster, Ari Graynor. Fun with a dominatrix.
3a. Runner-up for Best Off-Broadway Play: This Wide Night by Chloe Moss, starring Edie Falco and Alison Pill. This British one act drama about two women recently released from prison starred two of my favorite actors.
4. Best New Television Show: It's almost a cliche (already!) to say this, but I love HBO's Boardwalk Empire. Steve Buscemi is still one of the creepiest looking guys around, but he's terrific, as is Kelly Macdonald.
5. Best Film Festival Experience: I had a great time at the Columbia Gorge (formerly Washougal) Film Festival - Breven Angaelica Warren did a great job. Foreclosed got an award (that's the photo at the top), they had some terrific speakers, and yeah, some good movies too. Plus I got to have dinner with my cousin Jen & her husband in Portland, and saw spectacular scenery.
5b. Runner-Up for Best Film Festival Experience: Flint Film Festival, with all the credit to Robert Joseph Butler of Spirit of Isabel for the great audience and terrific q&a. Plus my sister Amy joined me for the day, and we had a delightful tapas dinner together (yes, in Flint).
6. Best weekend: Any weekend that I'm in the Poconos.
Awwww, yes, the tapas and the company was great. And Flint was surprisingly nice. The King's Speech was excellent, made better by seeing in the glorious Michigan Theater, with the huge pipe organ played by a guy in a tuxedo, who comes up out of the floor and just played Christmas music and 1930's jazz, no sheet music at all! There's a man who enjoys his work.
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