I always look forward to the Oscars. When I was a kid, I am pretty sure that it is because we usually gave up television for Lent, but we made an exception to watch the Oscars. :-)
These days I enjoy theming my Oscars dinner. One year it was around the major movie houses, but most often our theme is based on the best picture nominees.
Here are some ideas of menu items based on this year's nominees:
American Flag Cheesecake Bars
American Hustle is loosely based on the '70s and '80s FBI sting operation ABSCAM where agents worked with a conman to target corrupt politicians. Director David O'Russell's madcap crime film is nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including all the top categories: Picture, Director, Actor (Christian Bale), Actress (Amy Adams), Supporting Actor (Bradley Cooper), Supporting Actress (Jennifer Lawrence) and Original Screenplay.
*****
Pirate Chest with Fish and Potatoes - I like this one because the ship was a container ship, and this recipe has a container for the fish & potatoes!
Captain Phillips is based on the true story of Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks), whose cargo ship was invaded by Somali pirates, leading to his being taken hostage. The seafaring thriller is nominated for six Academy Awards including Picture and Supporting Actor for Barkhad Abdi who plays the lead pirate.
*****
Dallas Buyers Club looks back to the early days of AIDS, when a diagnosis of the disease was akin to a death sentence before the development and approval of the life-saving drugs available today. In the film, rodeo cowboy Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey) is diagnosed with AIDS and given a few weeks to live. Unsatisfied with this prognosis and the poisonous drugs available at the hospital, Woodruff begins a quest for better AIDS treatments, starting a buyers club to supply himself and his members with unapproved yet more effective pharmaceuticals. The film is nominated for six Academy Awards, including Picture, Actor (McConaughey), Supporting Actor (Jared Leto) and Original Screenplay.
*****
In Gravity, astronaut Ryan Stone finds herself alone and adrift in space after a shocking accident destroys her space shuttle and kills the rest of her crew. Director Alfonso Cuarón's gripping visuals propelled the film to 10 Academy Award nominations, including Picture, Actress (Sandra Bullock), Director and many technical awards.
*****
In the film Her, recently separated Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) acquires a new smartphone with a hyper-intelligent operating system that he names Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) and forms a romantic attachment to. The movie is nominated for five Academy Awards, including Picture, Original Screenplay and, for its beautiful vision of a futuristic Los Angeles, Production Design.
*****
In Nebraska, Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) is convinced he's won a million dollars when he receives a magazine publisher's sweepstakes notice. Although his son David (Will Forte) recognizes the notice as a scam, David nonetheless agrees to drive his father from their home in Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska so he can claim his "prize." The quirky comedy-drama is nominated for six Academy Awards including Picture, Actor (Dern), Supporting Actress (June Squibb), Director (Alexander Payne) and Cinematography, for its beautiful black and white photography by Phedon Papamichael.
*****
Mushy Peas - a quintessential British comfort food
In Philomena, a mother (Judi Dench), with the help of a British journalist, searches for her son who was adopted in the early '50s from an Irish convent where she had the baby following an unplanned teenage pregnancy. The film is nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Actress (Dench).
*****
The movie 12 Years a Slave begins in 1841 when Solomon Northup, a free man from Saratoga Springs, New York, is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Taken from his life and family, he spends 12 years working on several Louisiana plantations, subjected to increasingly cruel conditions. The deeply affecting film is nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Actor (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Supporting Actor (Michael Fassbender), Supporting Actress (Lupita Nyong'o) and Director (Steve McQueen).
*****
Director Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street unabashedly immerses itself in the vulgar, corrupt and greedy world of late 1980s Wall Street, based on the true-life story of Jordan Belfort. The film is nominated for Academy Awards for Picture, Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), Director and Adapted Screenplay.
*****
Looks like it should be an interesting show this year. Will you watch? Any predictions?
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