by Linda Holmes

Update: The day has come. I am doing jumping jacks with my mind. In a mere couple of hours, I will begin the long day ahead, which will feature, in order: Milk, The Reader, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, and Frost/Nixon. Will I bail and spend the afternoon at Starbucks? I don't think we know. But now, we're going to find out. The suspense is killing me, and soon, I suspect that my spine will be also.

I've always been kind of fascinated by the AMC Best Picture Showcase. That's the special deal where, for $30, you can watch all the Best Picture nominees...in a row. It's happening today (Saturday), and they may be doing it at a theater near you -- check the site to find out.

This year, I'm actually going. I've already seen four out of five of the movies (sorry, The Reader!), but I don't mind a refresher before the big ceremony on Sunday night, and I'm kind of curious about what that much exposure will do to me -- I mean, for me.

To follow my adventures, follow me on Twitter at monkeyseeblog, or if you're not a Twitter person yourself, watch it roll by here.

What I think will happen, after the jump...

My guess? I suspect that sitting through this thirteen-plus-hour marathon is going to make me resentful and tired of all these movies, which is exactly where I like to be heading into a three-plus-hour celebration. Yay, exhaustion!

It will be an massive mental, social, and quite possibly musculoskeletal experiment, in which I will share with you the highs and lows and the "Oh, Benjamin!" of it all. (You can tell a lot about how I am approaching this by the fact that I am planning all my breaks to come during one movie, and while I won't tell you which one it is, I'll hint that I expect to age entirely forwards, but at a greatly accelerated speed, while experiencing it for the second time.)

Is Slumdog Millionaire better the second time around? Will my back give out somewhere around the end of The Reader? How much popcorn can one person truly enjoy? And will the crowd still be paying attention when the final film -- Frost/Nixon -- rolls at 9:45 in the evening?

categories: Awards Season, Movies

10:09 - February 21, 2009

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