The grandest of all clusterfucks in the world of film, the Oscars are like a hurricane that sucks up every film lover in its path--- from the most casual of fans to the most hardcore of cinemaniacs, there's really no avoiding them. Whether you love or hate them, there isn’t a movie fan alive who can avoid some discussion of the Oscars; it’s what the feverish, seemingly never-ending awards season culminates in. Oscar parties don't celebrate the awards themselves--- rather, it celebrates the end of award season circle jerk.
In spite of the Oscars’ innate lack of importance, the last two years’ ceremonies have been noteworthy. In 2006 Martin Scorsese received his long overdue award, and in 2007 the Coen Brothers were awarded their long overdue honor. For the first time in over a decade, the Academy was willing to give the big prize to films with violent undercurrents instead of self-important nonsense pictures (The Departed is at least silly nonsense). Last year's ceremony, rather than being a much needed sign of change in the Academy's taste (There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men being front runners has to be a unique bridging of quality and popular tastes, an anomaly in the Awards' history), seems like it was just a fluke. Now that the actors' strike is over, we're back to self-congratulatory red carpet trash--- stifling, self important garbage that suffocates world view as opposed to enlightening it. Because I hate being behind on popular movie taste, I forced myself to sit through all the nominated films. It wasn't a pretty experience.
With that being said, on to the pictures themselves.
David Fincher’s technical virtuosity does nothing to expand the themes of this vacant tale, which has all the schmaltz of Forrest Gump (a film I do not admire) but none of the energy. Fincher deliberately bores and stifles in the name of an intellectual pursuit; it’s turgid, lifeless formalism at its most portentous. I admire aspects of Fincher’s technique, but it is absolutely meaningless in the context of the narrative. The casting of Cate Blanchett’s is most revealing of Fincher’s methods--- like Fincher, Blanchett is all sanctimonious, distracting technique and no genuine emotion. Seriously, I walked out of the movie theater starving because I’d just watched scenery getting chewed for three endless hours.
If liberals in H'wood really wanted to look ahead to the future instead of doubling back on the past, Frost/Nixon never would have made it past the green lighting phase. Instead of contributing to our understanding of the nation’s 37th President, Richie Cunningham’s film is really only about invalidating genuine political discourse and re-inflating the left’s favorite punching bag, Richard Nixon. By treating the Watergate break in like it was the Reichstag's fire, Cunningham fundamentally misunderstands the dramaturgical power of Richard Nixon's story. Instead of analyzing the corrupting influence of politics in the United States (‘the beast’, as Oliver Stone so flawlessly phrased it in his masterpiece Nixon), Frost/Nixon is two-hours of pseudo-grandstanding and partisan hackery; in terms of political dialogue, it’s about as enlightening as your average cable news program, and it even comes complete with its own set of pseudo-babbling talking heads. In spite of being just plain stupid, Frost/Nixon has to count as Cunningham's first legitimately watchable film since Apollo 13, maybe Night Shift, at least in the sense that it's not offensively pedestrian and trivializing. It's just insipid.
The first of the discussed nominees to have an actual sense of life, Milk at least has the common sense to be amicable self-importance. Coasting by on energy and Sean Penn's weightless, graceful performance, Milk succeeds in embodying the three part biopic structure without dragging it out with pretension. Gus Van Sant manages to transpose his indie aesthetic to a populist form, and the result may count as one of the finer genre efforts of the year. The supporting players are all wonderful to, with Josh Brolin managing to touch a humanistic note in spite of the fact that his character is woefully underwritten. Van Sant more or less transposes his 'reasoning' for the school shootings in Elephant, that repressed homosexual rage leads to murder, and it's especially tacked on in this film.
This movie seriously fucking sucks. In all honesty, I turned off this piece of shit about a half hour in, so I can’t really comment at length on it. The Weinstein’s are another in a long line of cultural derelicts to prove that there really is no business like Shoah business, like no business I know.
Yes, I know, it’s pornography. It’s television. It’s gimmicky. It’s so sappy that you’re blowing your nose in pancakes by the end. It’s loud. It’s obnoxious. It’s bombastic. I think there is a certain sect of contrarian critics simply hating the idea of a film so digitized, and they throw out a set of meaningless buzzwords to jump on a bandwagon of hate. Maybe I’m just worn out of hating every critical and award darling this season, but I really do struggle to see what is so contemptible about Slumdog Millionaire. Benjamin Button, Frost Nixon, The Reader, and even Milk deliberately suffocate the audience with self-importance; in contrast to this, Slumdog Millionaire is practically a liberating experience. Without a doubt, this is the film that's going to win; and it is the best of the nominated films, I think (which is a bit of back-handed praise, to be sure). The film's game-show framing device is an easy target for people who want to talk about the 'death of cinema', but it's so ingrained into how the story unfolds that I think it rises above mere gimmickry. The Darjeeling Limited it 'aint, but it also doesn't deserve to be thought of as hateful or racially ignorant, especially considering the film goes to such, shall we say, extreme lengths to get you to sympathize with the protagonist (he gets beaten, waterboarded, electrocuted, spit on, and doused in shit...and that's the first ten minutes). I enjoyed it while I was watching it; indeed, it's an experience that comes at you from side to side, but if I never see it again, it will be too soon.
Just for fun, some old fashioned predictions:
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director: Danny Boyle
Best Actor: Sean Penn
Best Actress: Melissa Leo (maybe I just can't fathom the idea of Winslet winning for a role so...embarrassing)
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger
Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz
Best Original Screenplay: In Bruges
Best Adapted Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Cinematography: The Dark Knight
Best Editing: Slumdog Millionaire
Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Costume Design: The Dutchess
Best Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Achievement in Sound: The Dark Knight
Sound Editing: The Dark Knight
Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Animated Feature: Wall-E
Foreign Language Film: Waltz with Bashir
Best Documentary: Man on Wire
Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th- That's all folks.
7 comments:
Well, for starters, I think you're being way too harsh on Frost/Nixon. Why exactly do you hate Ron Howard so much? I understand that he can be bland at times (Cocoon, The Grinch, EdTV, etc.) but what about Apollo 13, for example? Howard has indeed captured some of the magic of Spielberg's cinema at times. I think you just hate him because of his acting.
I thought Milk was a superb film, the best of the five nominees and certainly one of the top five of the year.
I actually liked The Reader. Did you watch the whole thing? There are definately times when it feels like Oscar bait, but Winslet and Fiennes both give good performances. The scene with Lena Olin was the only one I found mediocre.
Now, Slumdog and Benjamin Button are both Oscar bait. I will concede that Slumdog is a decent film, but extremely overrated and cliched (did they seriously need to add in the "evil game show host" cliche?). Benjamin Button is the only nominee I would give a thumbs down to. The rumors are true: Eric Roth DID rip off himself, and somehow Fincher fell for it.
What's this I hear about you hating The Wrestler???
Well, for starters, I think you're being way too harsh on Frost/Nixon. Why exactly do you hate Ron Howard so much?
It comes off that way, but I was more or less ambivalent about it. My only point was it was more or less like watching the cable news, and it shed absolutely nothing on President Nixon. I didn't care for Watchmen, but even that movie had a more dynamic potrayal of the man. And he wears a rubber nose for Pete's sake!
I dislikeHoward because he is a self important hack who makes product and not art. I almost like his first film, and I legitimately like his second, Night Shift, which is reminiscent of an early Scorsese! It's lighter, for sure, but Howard directs with it energy and life and it's very funny.
I'll have to disagree that he captures Spielberg, as I think he more or less cheapens and bastardizes his aesthetic. He is calculated and stifling, whereas Spielberg uses form and images to make your spirit soar.
I thought Milk was a superb film, the best of the five nominees and certainly one of the top five of the year
I thought Milk was about as well done and entertaining as you could hope for. Penn has never been better.
I actually liked The Reader. Did you watch the whole thing?
...no, and I said as much! I will, though, as you're not the first person I've spoken to who legitimately defends the movie. Just understand that I watched it at the end of a Frost/NixonDoubtMilkGranTorinoWrestler-athon. I wasn't myself, and I'm aware of that, as I try my best to not shut something off unless there are extenuating circumstances. Sorry, man, in the state I was in, I only made it up to the scene that I took the screencap from.
Now, Slumdog and Benjamin Button are both Oscar bait
BB I'll agree with, but Slumdog is very anti-self importance, I think. Maybe not deliberately, but I don't think it even goes for anything more than being a crowd-pleasing fairy tale, not so much a critical darling. I see why it won, but before the nominees came out it wouldn't have been the horse I bet on. Benjamin Button is just a corpse of a movie, stuffed to the brim with self importance. I liked what Glenn Kenny said about it, that it went for Barry Lyndon and wound up Forrest Gump. Though, I don't even think it made it quite that far.
What's this I hear about you hating The Wrestler???
Hate isn't so much the right word. I definitely despised it, and I found myself more or less uncomfortable during the movie, and pitying Mickey Rourke, who put his heart and soul in front of Aronofsky's camera, but Aronofsky treats him as a guinea pig instead of a performer. Myself and my co-curator are looking to publish something of length on it for its DVD release.
"Blanchett is all sanctimonious, distracting technique and no genuine emotion." Ah, so nice to hear someone else say exactly how I feel. Great review(s), thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for the kind words.
Oh dear, I'm overwhelmed by all your blogs. Do you have a 'main' one, or are they all your main one?
Most of my blogs are basically scrapbooks. My main site is http://gatochy.blogspot.com/
Gotcha! =)
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