The Other Sister

After receiving a well-earned certification from a sheltered boarding school, Carla Tate (Juliette Lewis), an ambitious and mildly mentally challenged young woman, returns home to her over-protective mother Elizabeth (Diane Keaton). Elizabeth seems to act as if she is embarrassed about her daughter's disability. During family discussions, Elizabeth adopts an uneasy attitude. Her wisdom-hard-won father Radley (Tom Skerritt) is a dentist and recovering alcoholic. Carla's ambition is to seek more independence from her family by earning a diploma from a trade school. When Carla meets another mentally challenged student, Daniel McMann (Giovanni Ribisi), they become friends and soon fall in love. Envying Danny's freedom, Carla convinces her parents she is capable of living on her own and moves into her own apartment. After a time, Carla and Danny become sexually active together.

Danny's independence is financially compromised when his wealthy and emotionally detached father abruptly stops sending subsistence money. Danny begins to realize that the independence he enjoyed comes with a staggering cost. Danny gets drunk, then seeks solace and insight (and a joyride in a vintage Ford Mustang convertible) from his landlord and friend, Ernie (Hector Elizondo).

During a Christmas party at the country club, nervous about his personal lot, Daniel drinks too much to build up his courage to declare his love for Carla, also telling everyone about their first time making love. A humiliated Carla bursts into tears, screaming at everyone to stop laughing at her. Although Daniel did not intend to embarrass Carla, she nonetheless refuses to see him. Over time, Carla realizes she still loves Danny and wants to see him again despite her mother's advising her otherwise. At her sister's wedding, Danny surprises Carla by showing up at the church and asking Carla to marry him, in a scene mimicking The Graduate, the couple's favorite movie.

Everyone supports their wishes except Elizabeth, who is unsure Danny can take care of himself, let alone Carla, who becomes angry, telling her mother she is sick of her dominance and doubt and is also sick of her treating her like an embarrassment. Carla's father and her sisters support her decision, and the wedding is planned. At first, Elizabeth is determined not to attend; but Radley admonishes her, saying he will walk Carla down the aisle, and finally she relents. Outside the church, Danny surprises Carla with a marching band playing a song from The Music Man . . . and they are chauffeured away to their honeymoon in Ernie's prized Mustang.

Oscar Show, 2013

Here's the Oscar Show for 2013, just in case you missed it. Enjoy


Here's the list of the Winners:

1. Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz

2. Animated Short Film: "Paper Man"

3. Animated Feature Film: "Brave"

4. Cinematography: Claudio Miranda for "Life of Pi"

5. Visual Effects: "Life of Pi"

6. Costume Design: "Anna Karenina"

7. Makeup and Hairstyling: "Les Miserables"

8. Live Action Short Film: "Curfew"

9. Documentary Short Subject: "Innocente"

10. Documentary Feature: "Searching for Sugar Man"

11. Foreign Language Film: "Amour"

12. Sound Mixing: "Les Miserables

13. Sound Editing: "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Skyfall" (A tie)

14. Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway

15. Film Editing: "Argo"

16. Production Design: "Lincoln"

17. Original Score: "Life of Pi"

18. Original Song: "Skyfall"

19. Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio for "Argo"

20. Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantion for "Django Unchained"

21. Directing: Ang Lee

22. Actress: Jennifer Lawrence

23. Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis

24. Best Picture: "Argo"

Note: I do not go to the movies. But last week I saw Argo on Xfinity Movie on Demand. It was worth paying $4.99 viewing it while lying down in the comfort of my own bed.

A Tale of two Sisters

A teenage girl named Su-mi is being brought to a psychiatrist. Although the psychiatrist attempts to elicit a response from her, she is unresponsive until a picture of her family is shown in front of her. She is taken home by her father, Moo-hyeon, along with her timid sister, Su-yeon. There, they are met by their difficult stepmother, Eun-joo. During their stay, both sisters encounter a ghostly woman at night. Additionally, tensions grow worse between the sisters and their stepmother especially after bruises are discovered on Su-yeon's arms, oblivious to Moo-hyeon.

Later, at a dinner party, a guest and relative convulses from a condition she has. The guest, while convulsing, notices the same ghost woman under the kitchen sink the sisters have been seeing. Eun-joo also notices the woman the next day and insists to Moo-hyeon that strange events have become frequent since Su-mi and Su-yeon returned. Her pet bird is killed and found in Su-yeon's bed. Thoughtlessly and in a fit of rage, she locks Su-yeon in the wardrobe, and after Su-yeon is freed, Moo-hyeon asks Su-mi why she is making trouble. Su-mi insists that the stepmother harasses Su-yeon, locking her in the closet. Moo-hyeon informs her that Su-yeon is dead, and that she is not getting better.

Su-mi believes her stepmother has killed Su-yeon and placed the body in a bag. A fight ensues between the two and Su-mi is rendered unconscious. Moo-hyeon returns home to find an injured Su-mi, however the stepmother and bag are nowhere to be found.

A flashback ultimately reveals that Su-yeon is really dead and that the stepmother has been absent throughout the whole film. In the past, Eun-joo was a live-in nurse caring for the girls' sick mother. The girls sensed that Eun-joo and Moo-hyeon were attracted to each other. Su-mi displays her disapproval toward Eun-joo, who in turn takes her anger out on Su-yeon. Su-yeon then returns to her room and Su-yeon's mother is shown trying to comfort her. In the present, Eun-joo goes into Su-yeon's room, where she hears a noise coming from the closet. The ghostly woman crawls out (either Su-yeon or her mother) and takes vengeance. However, it can be debated on whether this scene happened in real life, or whether it is a "fantasy" imagination scene created in the mind of Su-mi.

The flashback picks up again from when Su-yeon, after being comforted by her mother, wakes up and opens the wardrobe door, finding her mother who has hanged herself. Terrified and confused, she accidentally pulls the wardrobe down on top of herself. Eun-joo hears and goes to investigate but leaves rather than helping Su-yeon. She changes her mind and goes back. En route, she passes Su-mi and an argument starts between them, and Eun-joo is ultimately distracted long enough that she fails to reach Su-yeon. Eun-joo warns Su-mi that she may come to regret this moment. Su-mi dismisses the warning as nonsense and angrily marches out of the house. Su-yeon continues clawing at the wardrobe until she eventually dies. This flashback sets place just before Su-mi goes to the psychiatrist at the beginning of the film after her mother and sister both died.
Cast

The Stepfather

Michael returns home from military school to find his mother happily in love and living with her new boyfriend. As the two men get to know each other, he becomes more and more suspicious of the man who is always there with a helpful hand.

Bayaw-My Brother-in-Law

Bayaw indie film is a story about the bond between two brother-in-laws. Nilo Vergara (Paolo Rivero) is a policeman who lives an ordinary life with his wife, Pia Jacinto (played by Kaye Alipio, Philippine Survivor castaway). Their lives take an unfortunate turn when Nilo looses his badge to a frame up and is forced to depend on Pia for his livelihood. Pia becomes burdened and resentful of the responsibility of taking care of his husband and her drifter young brother, Rhennan (Janvier Daily). One day, Rhennan witnesses Nilo accidentally killing Pia after a heated argument. Both in-laws decide to run from the law and become fugitives. As the story progresses, the real events behind the death of Pia is slowly revealed through flashbacks and shifts in character point-of-views.

Andrew Miguel is introduced in this movie he has done some acting in the straight-to- video release, FRESH MAN. Andrew plays character, Erick Cana, the mysterious figure who saves the two brother-in-laws in the most unlikely times. His devious and sometimes, mischievous intentions complicate the lives of the two lead actors but his connection to Nilo and Rhennan is finally revealed at the end of the movie.

My Big, Fat Greek Wedding

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 Canadian-American romantic comedy film written by and starring Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. The film is centered on Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos, a middle class Greek American woman who falls in love with a non-Greek upper middle class "White Anglo-Saxon Protestant" Ian Miller. At the 75th Academy Awards, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. A sleeper hit, the film became the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time,and grossed $241.4 million in North America, despite never reaching number one at the box office during its release (the highest-grossing film to accomplish this feat).

A Perfect Stranger

Danielle Steel's A Perfect Stranger, also known as A Perfect Stranger (just like the name of the romance novel by Danielle Steel from which the film takes origin) is a 1994 American romantic-drama film directed by Michael Miller, whose most important element is the love triangle which characterizes it. The special effects were created by Brock Jolliffe. The film is set in San Francisco, California and was released in the USA in 1994.

Robert Urich is a lawyer who's fallen in love with a woman who's married to a dying millionaire and the whole story results in a love triangle.

Yossi and Jagger ( Lior)

Based on a true story, Yossi & Jagger portrays the love affair of two Israeli officers in an IDF position on the Israeli-Lebanese border. They are commanders, they are in love, and they try to find a place of their own in an oppressing and rigid system, which sends them to defend a cause they do not necessarily believe in.
Yossi, the company commander, is an introvert guy and largely a man-of-the-system. Jagger, the platoon commander, is an open and much more liberated guy. He is the star of the company. Yossi is determined to keep their love in secret. Whereas, Jagger, who is about to finish the service, believes that Yossi should leave the army with him. Shortly before departing for a dangerous ambush, the tension between the lovers gets high almost explosive.
Yossi & Jagger portrays in a courageous, genuine, amusing and sometines painful fashion the complicated and sensative topic of "gays in the military". It also portrays the tragic structure of life of young Israelis today. The film presents an enchanting ensemble of young men and women that were supposed, in this time of their lives, to dance, study and love. Instead, due to the mandatory army service and the complicated situation in the region, they have to devote their most beautiful years to their country, to be soldiers, to kill and get killed.
In Yossi & Jagger you can find a chef who finds comfort in cooking a gourmet cuisine, a soldier who believes in reincarnation, and two young women who try to survive in a men's world. By showing the apparently small details of the commanders' and soldiers' lives, the film creators emphasize the distorted situation in which these men and women are forced to live and die.