Movies

It’s been a two movie weekend. The hotel was fully booked, mostly with supporters of the Corn Huskers – the football team from the University of Nebraska. They played the Sooners, from Oklahoma University, at the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington.

College football is almost more popular than professional football in the US. We don’t really have anything comparable in England, but here, sport of all kinds is big money to universities. Although athletes can’t be paid, they usually receive scholarships, which is often the only way they would ever be able to afford a college education. And the professional teams are almost exclusively populated from the ranks of the college teams. The only sport that doesn’t follow this model is baseball – I’m sure there’s a very interesting sociological story that could be derived from this.

On Friday night, the Nebraska supporters were quite vocal. They were a little more subdued this morning, after their team lost. It was quite close – 23-20 – but the right team probably won. I have a fairly independent view, with no real affiliation (apart from working with an Okie) to either team, but the Huskers’ quarterback really sucked. I feel sorry for the guy I chatted to in the elevator who had driven down – 12 hours. The journey back would have been so much easier if his team had won.

The movies. Yesterday, Black Swan. The same director as The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky), which I loved, and with an IMDb score of 8.9/10 – very impressive. The matinee, at 2pm, was packed, which I’ve never seen before. It was great – very well acted, and with a good storyline. There were a number of scenes that made you wonder what was going on, but these all fell into place once you saw the ending. I love movies like that – very satisfying. Summarizing the storyline doesn’t do it justice, but here it is: lead ballerina in a production of Swan Lake is obsessed by achieving perfection.

Today, 127 hours. Director Danny Boyle, who most recently did Slumdog Millionaire. It’s based on a true story – the guy who had to hack off his own arm to free himself from being trapped by a rockfall while canyoneering in Utah. It’s not an easy story to make into an engaging film, and, of course, reviews have often focused too much on the hacking-the-arm-off scene. I didn’t find that unduly disturbing. It’s interesting (in an odd sort of way) to wonder at what point you might be able to do the same thing in similar circumstances.

My taste in movies almost certainly doesn’t coincide with yours, but I did recommend Winter’s Bone, that I think is now up for an award. So I’m not too far off.