Norfolk’s historic Attucks Theater is a special place made even more special last week as it hosted the screening of a new HBO documentary on an historical court case/beautiful love story.

For those who are unaware of the Lovings, here’s a brief backstory. An interracial marriage in Virginia ends in arrest in June of 1958 and ultimately, a felony conviction. The couple were banned from living in the state.

They sought help from the ACLU at the suggestion of then Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and it led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case: Loving vs. Virginia, 1967.

The documentary is shot in HD and in 16mm. The story of the bulk of the 16mm footage is an amazing story not even told in the film, but the footage itself is worth mentioning. Shot by a then recent college graduate with a hunch that this case might be historic, the footage captures the essence of Richard (who was white) and Mildred (who was part black and part Native American) Loving at home in a normal family setting, doing everyday, mundane things like putting on their daughter’s socks or starting a fire in the wood stove. The lingering shots in a cinema verite style are moving, endearing and thought-provoking. The footage ultimately sat in the graduate’s bedroom closet until a call from The Loving Story’s producers.

Using footage from news archive footage of the time intercut with the 16mm gold footage and grounded by modern day interviews with the lawyers who brought the case to the highest court in the land, as well as the Loving’s daughter, gives the audience the feeling of being in the time capsule but with perspective.

Wonderfully captured in the film, Mildred’s boldness and tenacity from a quiet and humble place beside Richard’s sincerity and dedication help us really see the bigger picture even while they seem unaware or unwilling to see themselves as civil rights activists. And in an interview, their daughter Peggy shares simply that when they met (Mildred was 11 and Richard was 17), it was love at first sight. This love was evident on screen throughout the film.

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned Virginia’s law which led to the end of anti-miscegenation laws in all stars that had them. The Lovings were an unassuming couple who simply asked why loving someone was against the law – a question that still plagues states in 2012 as same-sex marriages are debated.

Bravo to Director/Producer Nancy Buirski and Producer/Editor Elisabeth Haviland James for their vision and persistence in bringing The Loving Story to the screen. Thanks locally to COX Communications and the Attucks Theater for allowing us to see it in person and meet one of the attorneys who argued the case and the editor/producer following the screening. And kudos to HBO for bringing such an important story to a mass audience.

A movie reviewer loves this day! All year long we go to movies and review them based on our feelings and observations. When it’s time for the nominations, we are put to the test. Did the movies we reviewed as the best of the year stand out among all the rest in the eyes of the Oscar voters? Today was the day we got our answers!

Here were MY picks for BEST PICTURE — the first ones I felt were a lock for a nomination (the asterisks denotes the actual nominations):
**The Descendants
**The Artist
**Midnight in Paris
**Warhorse
**Hugo
The Ides of March
**The Help
**Moneyball

These were the ones I felt COULD get in but were on the bubble:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
**The Tree of Life
Bridesmaids
Drive
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two

One film received a nomination that wasn’t on my list at all:
**Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The most interesting thing about the list of Best Picture nominees is that there are only nine. The Academy expanded nominations from five to ten a few years ago, but this year — tweaking the rules — required winning nominees to receive a certain percentage of votes for inclusion. Five to 10 films could have been nominated — apparently only nine received enough attention from Academy voters.

As for the Acting nominations. I went five for five in the BEST ACTRESS category. The nominees are:
Glenn Close, “Albert Nobbs”
Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”
Viola Davis, “The Help”
Rooney Mara, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Michelle Williams, “My Week with Marilyn’

I went four for five in the BEST ACTOR category. The nominees are:
George Clooney, “The Descendants”
Brad Pitt, “Moneyball”
Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”
Gary Oldman, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”
Denian Bichir, “A Better Life”

Other categories of note:
BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Alexander Payne, “The Descendants”
Martin Scorsese, “Hugo”
Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris”
Terrence Malick, “The Tree of Life”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh, “My Week with Marilyn”
Jonah Hill, “Moneyball”
Nick Nolte, “Warrior”
Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”
Max von Sydow, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Bérénice Bejo, “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain, “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer, “Albert Nobbs”
Octavia Spencer, “The Help”

My first thoughts looking over the list:
1 – So excited for Melissa McCarthy and “Bridesmaids”!
2 – No “Ides of March” in the Best Picture list?
3 – Where was “The Adventures of Tin Tin”? One nomination and not even for Best Animated Feature?
4 – So sad that the best of the Harry Potter film series was relegated to Visual Effects, Art Direction and Makeup nominations, again.
5 – Isn’t Max von Sydow the guy who doesn’t say a word in “Extrememly Loud and Incredibly Close”? That’s awesome.
6 – And YAY! for Melissa McCarthy! Did I already mention that?

I’m sure I will have more thoughts when there’s time to digest it all. That’s another blog for another day.

For a complete list of Oscar Nominations, visit the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences websit by CLICKING HERE.

The winners will be announced Sunday, February 26th and I will be tweeting and posting on facebook via The Hampton Roads Show twitter and facebook pages. So much fun! Let me know your thoughts below!

Is anyone as excited as I am about The Dark Knight Rises premiering this summer!?

I am  thee  biggest Batman fan. He is hands-down my favorite superhero. I have seen and own each film, watched the reruns of the show and there was no cartoon that took place over batman in my childhood afternoons.

Although I was initially disappointed that the film will feature Catwoman and no Penguin as it did in the 1992 film “Batman Returns”, I have learned that the most recent series of batman films are following the comic-book series.

So chime in Hampton Roads. Are you excited to see “The Dark Knight Rises?” And if not Batman, then who? Who is your favorite superhero?

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES TRAILER

Although I had my doubts about how good a “Men In Black 3″ could be, the Trailer makes the movies look very promising.

The film is set to premier May 25th and will kick off a summer of blockbuster movies.

The Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones collaboration has yet to upset, hopefully the 3rd attempt will follow the trend.

Vh1 recently announced their plans to create a biopic of female mega group TLC.

Leading the script will be Kate Lanier, writer of such films as “Whats Love Go To Do With It”, “Set It Off” and “Beauty Shop.”

TLC group members Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozanda “Chilli” Thomas will serve as executive producer on the project, along with Bill Diggins, Maggie Malina Jeff Olde and Jill Holmes.

T-Boz & Chilli had this to say about the film, Vh1 reports:

“The reality of this brings me to tears because I am seeing one of my dreams come to life. I alwaysfelt our story had to be told. What makes it even more amazing is having Kate Lanier on board. I remember watching ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ with Lisa, and I knew then whoever wrote that story had to write ours. I will forever be thankful to Jeff Olde for believing in our story and going the extra mile to make it happen,” said Chilli.

“I’m just overjoyed. I appreciate Jeff Olde and everyone on staff at VH1 that took interest in us, thank you. Kate Lanier is amazing. I’m honored to work with her I love her art. Well here we go on another TLC ride and I can’t wait. Like Biggie said ‘Now if ya don’t know, now ya knowwwww,’” stated Tionne.”

I am beyond excited about the making of this movie. I am a, not so low-key, fan of TLC! I own every album they’ve  released, two of which I have on cassette and CD. 

I really hope this film turns out great.

Continue to check the blog every now and again for updates on this project, because I will be following it.

The American Pie movie franchise is set to release yet another film. This time around our favorite party goers are all grown-up. Some are have entered corporate America, some have started families and some have even become stay at home husbands. Just when it seems like the foursome lost their excitement, a reunion is planned that brings everybody back to their old ways.

The movie features all of the original cast members: Jason Biggs (Jim),  Chris Klein (Oz), Thomas Ian Nicholas (Kevin), Eddie Kaye Thomas (Paul), Alyson Hannigan (Michelle), Sean William Scott (Stifler). Other familiar characters include Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth), Vicky (Tara Reid), Jim’s Dad (Eugene Levy) and the infamous Stiflers Mom (Jennifer Collidge).

Seems like the same old script, but that’s always been good enough to get a few laughs out of me.

I’m definitely gonna check it out.

How bout you Hampton Roads?

Big numbers have been few and far between at the box office for horror films, but that all changed this past week with the premier of Paranormal Activity 3.

The found-footage film earned an amazing $26.2million the opening day, and totaled $54 million for the weekend, making it the biggest scare-film of the year!

Its funny that the film did so well, the dragging year of horrors leading up to PA3 was a major factor in me deciding to skip out on the film. After 9 long months of horrible plots, minimal fright factor, bad acting and over-all bad movies, I had just given up on horror films. Scary movies aren’t really my thing, but I don’t mind watching a good one.

I could argue that, with Halloween closely approaching, the high numbers could be a result of fright seekers trying to get their fix a few weeks early, but it could also just be a good film.

So Hampton Roads, for those of you who saw the movie, am I missing out?

Let me know if I am.

Paramount Pictures will exclusively debut Paranormal Activity 3 in select cities worldwide. How could your city be selected? You have to tweet! That’s right the city with the most tweets will win the opportunity to view the film 3 days before the worldwide release date.

“The support of this franchise from the online community is phenomenal. We again look to reward them for that support by offering them the chance to see it first, this time expanding our reach globally,” said Rob Moore, Vice Chairman of Paramount Pictures.

The contest is called “Tweet To See It First”. To vote go to www.ParanormalMovie.com and select your city on a global map, which doubles as the entry for your  #Hashtag that will be a direct link to twitter. Every time a tweet post, it counts as a vote.

The contest started Oct 3rd and will run until 11:59pm PDT Oct 13th.

The 20 winning cities will be announced Oct 14th.

So you remember that movie “Valentine’s Day”? Well the I guess that producers got together and decided that movies dedicated to a single day with a butt-load of people in it are really cool and chose to do it again, only this time they have a bigger and better holiday and bigger and better names.

“New Year’s Eve” is the film and is set to premier Dec.9th. The movie is a romantic comedy that follows the lives of  New York couples and singles over the coarse New Years Eve.

The movies features such big names as Jon Bon Jovi, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hally Berry, Sara Jessica Parker, Ashton Kutcher, Katherine Heigl, Hilary Swank, Jessica Biel, Abigail Breslin, Ludacris Ryan Seacrest and about 15  other famous people.

Unlike Valentine’s Day, I’m actually going to see this one. It looks pretty good. Check out a preview of New Year’s Day below.

A Bridesmaids sequel may be just down the isle, but will it get jilted at the altar? While the movie was a comedic success and would potentially draw a major crowd for a part 2, there is doubt that the films leading lady, Kristen Wiig, might not return.

Eonline Reports: “The movie’s driving force, Kristen Wiig, may not be on board.

“I don’t think Kristen is going to do it,” says Jon Hamm, who played the Saturday Night Live funnylady’s douchy friend with benefits in the raunchy comedy.”

Bridesmaids was THEE funniest movie of 2011, however I know comedy sequels usually can’t live up to the first movie i.e. the Hangover 2.

What you think Hampton Roads? If Kristen Wiig jumps on-board and a Bridesmaids 2 is filmed do you think it would be just as funny as the 1st?