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Westside Steve<br />
Saturday, March 1<br />
Erie Yacht Club halfway to summer in<br />
Saturday, March 15<br />
North Hill Hibernians<br />
North Main Street right after<br />
the St. Patrick's Day parade<br />
Sunday, March 16<br />
The Works<br />
Michigan Avenue at Rosa Parks Detroit<br />
right after the St Patrick's Day parade!<br />
Monday, March 17<br />
On Tap Montrose<br />
Akron's best St Patrick's Day party!<br />
Saturday, March 22<br />
Firehouse Grille 8:30 PM<br />
Malvern, Ohio<br />
To purchase Westside Steve Simmons<br />
newest CD A Pirates Life visit<br />
www.cdbaby.com/artist/westsidestevesimmons<br />
www.westsidesteve.com<br />
306<br />
LOUNGE<br />
Home of the Hoover<br />
2 HAPPY HOURS!<br />
7:30-10:30am<br />
& 4-6:30pm<br />
Daily Specials<br />
<br />
Full Kitchen Menu<br />
<br />
7377 Lakeshore Blvd.<br />
Mentor<br />
440.257.3557<br />
By Westside Steve Simmons<br />
OSCAR PREDICTIONS<br />
Okay. You only have a few days to bet the<br />
farm. I’d caution against it though…<br />
Best Supporting Actress<br />
I think Jennifer Lawrence will probably win<br />
for AMERICAN HUSTLE since it looks to get<br />
snubbed in a few other categories. However<br />
I think the best performance by far was Sally<br />
Hawkins in Woody Allen’s BLUE JASMINE.<br />
Best Supporting Actor<br />
The front runner is Jared Leto from DAL-<br />
LAS BUYERS CLUB and I agree with that<br />
wholeheartedly.<br />
Best Actress<br />
I think Judy Dench did a tremendous job in<br />
PHILOMENA and Meryl Streep is the best actress<br />
alive. Still this year I think Cate Blanchett<br />
has the Mojo for BLUE JASMINE. Sandra<br />
Bullock might possibly pull off a dark horse<br />
win for GRAVITY but I wouldn’t bet on it<br />
Best Actor<br />
Chiwetel Ejiafore of 12 YEARS A SLAVE<br />
should ride the PC express to the gold this<br />
year even though I think there were better<br />
performances. I was impressed by Leonardo<br />
DiCaprio for the effort he put in WOLF<br />
OF WALL STREET, DALLAS BUYERS<br />
CLUB’S Matthew McConaughey for losing<br />
all that weight and a great performance and<br />
to Bruce Dern in NEBRASKA just because it<br />
seems like his time.<br />
Best Director<br />
Alfonso Cuaron is the odds on favorite for<br />
GRAVITY. I hated it but apparently I’m in the<br />
minority. Yes I was impressed by the special<br />
effects for about 20 minutes until they got boring.<br />
My best director pick would have been,<br />
well, anybody else.<br />
Best Picture<br />
TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE is not my least<br />
favorite of the nominations (GRAVITY is)<br />
but it’s close. Manipulative and strewn with<br />
cartoonish characters that are either saints or<br />
monsters I think this year politics trumps art<br />
and it wins. My personal favorite movie of the<br />
year, although admittedly probably appealing<br />
more to me than most, was INSIDE LLEWIN<br />
DAVIS but it wasn’t nominated.<br />
Feel free to berate me if I’m wrong.<br />
If you’re funny enough I’ll print it.<br />
WSS<br />
westsidesteve@aol.com<br />
Monument Men<br />
Sony PG13 112 min<br />
You know the drill, gang.<br />
Oscars will be out really soon and<br />
fall, (the season they like to hit the<br />
market with all the contenders), is<br />
over or a long way off depending on<br />
perspective. We are in a no man’s land<br />
between Oscar hopeful and summer<br />
blockbusters. That’s life. This issue<br />
I’ve got a couple of exceptionally<br />
average offerings for you but don’t<br />
worry, there’s nothing horrible. First<br />
of all is a film called MONUMENT<br />
MEN. From what they say it’s based<br />
on an actual group of art scholars<br />
pressed into service near the end of<br />
the Second World War and charged<br />
with locating and protecting thousands<br />
of pieces of world class works of art,<br />
stolen by the Nazis and destined for<br />
destruction as the Third Reich faces defeat.<br />
Director George Clooney has a fairly big task<br />
on his hands. First he has an idea you might<br />
call the basic premise of the film, which is this<br />
question: Is the quest to protect great art which<br />
is the heart and soul of continuing civilization<br />
worth the sacrifice of human life That<br />
backlash from some members of the political<br />
and military leaders who disagreed was one<br />
of the biggest obstacles these men faced. One<br />
might ask that question of the underlying<br />
reasons we do accept for war but I digress. His<br />
second obstacle is trying to make an exciting<br />
war movie out of a not really so exciting set<br />
of episodes. I give him a qualified pass on<br />
his endeavor for these reasons; first, he’s put<br />
together I’m very competent and likeable cast.<br />
Clooney himself, Bill Murray , Bob Balaban,<br />
Matt Damon, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett<br />
and a few others make up a picture that might<br />
seem like THE DIRTY DOZEN for art lovers.<br />
MONUMENT MEN is more of a serious of<br />
episodes little sub stories cobble together<br />
into a feature length motion picture. There<br />
are stories of redemption, comic relief and<br />
even romance none strong enough to carry an<br />
entire film but certainly fine as pieces of the<br />
quilt. For that reason they took one of the plot<br />
devices, the search for the Pieta Del something<br />
or other, and satisfactorily made it the thread<br />
to bind the other vignettes into a single tale.<br />
26 www.northcoastvoice.com • (440) 415-0999 February 26 - March 12, 2014
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