Go See Capote!

Rating: 9/10 (3 March 2006)

You should have been there last night! Brian and Bridget invited us over for an unlawful screening of the Oscar nominated film, "Capote." Brian obtained an illegal advanced copy of the film on DVD (from where I will not tell because security concerns prohibit me to). "Capote" stars Phil Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote and includes a plethora of other familiar faces who nobody knows unless you're a movie nerd. Phil does an excellent job playing Truman and emulating his infamous nasally voice and asthmatic cackle.
After starting the evening off with a delicious meal at Broadway Grill, accompanied by Scot and Liana, we returned to the O'Neill/Tynan residence whereas Brian worriedly noticed that he was out of beer. He convinced me to walk to the nearby store named "Frozen Meats" with him to pick up a gross of 22 ounce Icehouses. While there, I added sunflower seeds and sausage sticks to my grocery list. We departed the little grocery mart with our paper sacks of beer, talking nostalgically about the Capital Hill neighborhood I used to call home, and returned with the simple essentials for a perfect night of cinema. Bridget and Amy were reviewing the wedding invitation that Bridget designed and we all agreed that they turned out fabulous (even though the printing company couldn't provide the envelope paper she wanted). Scot and Liana arrived to the apartment after a considerable search for parking space, and Liana planted herself on the red velvet chase lounge (given to Bridget by her mother because it didn't match her furniture any more). Scot sat on an uncomfortable dining chair behind the couch dwellers (Brian, Amy, and I), and Bridget stationed herself on the floor between Brian's legs. After some channel jockeying and nonsensical conversation about TiVO, Brian cued the illicit movie on his new Osso HD DVD player.
The group quieted down, except for my sunflower seed crackling and the gentle laughter stemming from Liana's bemusement of the two housecats, Mogwai and Gizmo. The lively kittens continued to interrupt concentration throughout the film with their harebrained and zany antics. The evening was also dotted with Scot's flagelence, which was routinely released to punctuate a dramatic moment in the film. Typical Scot! Although the messages "For Your Consideration" and "Not for Sale or Distribution" periodically appeared on screen, "Capote" was an excellent film, worthy of all the Oscar accolades it's been receiving. "Capote" inspired and disturbed with its unconventional protagonists, forcing the viewer to challenge his moral judgment- having to choose between revulsion and sympathy for the movies antiheroes. Although the movie only gives you a snapshot of Truman's life (the period when he was writing his famous non-fiction novel, "In Cold Blood", which follows the brutal murder of a rural Kansas family by two imaginative ex-cons), it gives a good portrait of who Truman Capote was- narcissistic, compassionate, distrustful, brilliant,-qualities that would advance his legend until his horrible demise at the hands of alcoholism in 1984. (To learn more about the life of Truman Capote, I recommend the oral biography "Truman Capote", edited by George Plimpton, in which his friends and enemies are interviewed about his life).
Anyway, I must implore all to run out and see "Capote" before it deservedly wins multiple Oscars this Sunday.