Decade End Humble Opinions, Part 2

I respectfully offer a disclaimer. There may be some very good movies of the decade I haven't seen yet. This may be why they aren't on my list. Or, alternately, you may have gotten a lot more out of a film that I did. So there, nyahh... wow, that was cathartic. On with the show....

STIWMDSSEHHIWGTABOFOTD (read part 1 for explanation), movie list:

7) Letters From Iwo Jima - I remember when this movie was supposed to be the sideline curiosity to Flags of Our Fathers, the little vanity project that Clint Eastwood just "had to" put together. Okay, after it got nominated for a Best Picture Oscar I decided to check it out, and was very glad I did. Allegedly, it's the Japanese point of view of the Battle of Iwo Jima, though it's been criticized for making characters with exposure to the United States overly sympathetic to the "enemy" in this movie (hey, that's us, and darned unpatriotic! Er, darned patriotic?) Anyway, probably the movie on my list that's been seen by the fewest people. This is a shame, even if I'm not in love with Eastwood as a director. At least he didn't cast an orangutan as a co-lead...

6) Batman Begins - And this movie is probably the one that's been seen by the most. No, The Dark Knight will not be showing up later, because I believe the first film was better, even without Heath Ledger and even with Katie Holmes. Weird, I know. The reintroduction of the Batman franchise had a far better story line to my way of thinking, and while maybe the villains were a little less showy, I think Tom Wilkinson, Liam Neeson, and especially Cillian Murphy were fantastic doing the voodoo they did (yeah, ruins the internal rhyme, moving on...). If Christian Bale had just learned to talk more loudly while constructing the menacing verbal mannerisms of the Caped Crusader, my one big complaint about this movie would be resolved. Oh, and you know, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman just around, doing Caine/Freeman things, no big deal, you know. There might be some of you who criticize the overuse of "hero movies" in this day and age, and you might be right. Doesn't mean the best ones don't stand up to anything else out there. All the Oscar quality movies can't be "chick flicks" can they....

5) The Incredibles - No, I take it back, this one's been seen by more than anyone on the list, but most of them weren't of an age to also read blog entries about movies yet when it came out. There might still be some of you out there who criticize the quality of a movie because it's animated, and see my previous movie comment about superheros, but this has both, and it's that good anyway. I wouldn't have been disappointed to see this one nominated for Best Picture. The redemptive nature of the film, surrounded some pretty dark subject matter for your summer kiddie flick, was impressive enough to get an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. That's the words, not the pictures. I could irritate some people I know and say it's the best Samuel L. Jackson movie from that time period, because he was also doing Star Wars things (*sigh*), but let's move on. Ice to see you, too...

4) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - I bet this movie would have been breathtaking to see on the big screen, but even on video, it was awesome. Not many Westerners, myself included, had been exposed to much of the wuxia style, but considering it became the highest-grossing foreign film in U.S. history, a lot of people did not make the same mistake I did. The character of Li Mu-bai has the warrior/philosopher ethic that 21st Century Jedi only wish they could have. Sigh. Moving on, the movie also led to the opening to the west of other very good films, like Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower, and House of Flying Daggers. Further, it introduced the West to Zhang Ziyi, and as part of the West I am gratified for this introduction. Everybody say "YES!" Sorry, out of practice, there....

3) O Brother, Where Art Thou - so I recently was convinced to watch No Country For Old Men, and the person was bothered on some level that I said it was "good, not great". He said "you must not be a Coen Brothers fan". Au contraire, and to wit, besides... I'm not sure I buy their claim that they had never read The Odyssey at all before making the film, but if so other interpretations gave them a hell of a lot to work with. Not that Homer was this funny. Love the blues tie-in (Tommy Johnson, the crossroads, etc.), fanciful integration on a limited scale during the Depression, and the quotability of this film (Oh, George... not the livestock!). The film is definitely bonafide, and it's a suitor, besides. By the way, we thought... you was... a TOAD!

2) The Departed - I admit, I haven't seen the film Internal Affairs (Hong Kong) upon which this film was based, but it had been a while since I read The Odyssey too. Anyway, don't know any anyone can't be interested in a film with Nicholson, Sheen, Damon, DiCaprio, et al in it, all playing tough guys on one side of the law or the other. A little bit Scarface (the old version), a little bit Goodfellas (I mean, it is a Scorsese film, so hopefully you become inured to the F-word after an f@#&*!% while, but come on, he makes the best f@#&*!% films) and a little bit suspense. Then with the point in the film where you go "holy crap! What the f*#$!"? Oh, very rewatchable, even if you know what's coming. I understand, it's not as much Sixth Sense as a less surprising Usual Suspects or Seven, but that's a fine comparison as far as I'm concerned.

1) High Fidelity - What came first, the music or the misery? Music, misery, melancholy, misanthropy, melodrama, a hint of misogyny, and "the musical moron twins"... that's at least seven m's, magnificent number, and lot's of mmmmmmms. Good enough for me. Okay, seriously, always been a big John Cusack fan. I think Jack Black works a lot better as a supporting character with the room to stretch and be insane, rather than when that's the primary deal to the movie. And it's a movie that focuses a lot on music, of course, but not just the performances, but also as a vehicle for at least theorizing that what you like is as important as what you like. Okay, it's not as important, but why else do we spend so much time find out what people we associate with and are interested in read, watch, and listen to? Just passing time, I don't think so. Also, this is my #1 because when I first saw this in the theater, and John Cusack said to the audience "there's an art to making a tape" some smart-ass I know (take a bow, Jennie) looked right at me and said "yep, that's you." I said then, and believe it still, that it's a slightly more polished version of whatever amalgam you can put together between me, Wendell, and Richard. For those of you in the know, ponder that and shudder. And if you *really* wanted to screw me up, you should've gotten to me earlier.

Oscars - you watching them? Yeah, me neither...

... but that doesn't mean I am uninterested in knowing who wins, or above some casual speculation about the contenders and pretenders. I will preface all this by saying that if I were still in Roanoke, I'd have seen more Oscar-nominated movies, and that in at least one category I'd be doing a little better than flying blind, that being....

1) Best Actor - Richard Jenkins, Frank Langella, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, Mickey Rourke
Yeah, not seeing the movies for the two front-runners is gonna make this very hard. I don't think Pitt wins for this polarizing movie, and Richard Jenkins seems to be the guy for whom the nomination is essentially his win. This is a shame because I really liked the movie, and thought he was great. And besides, I liked him better than Pitt in Burn After Reading as well. But anyway, as mentioned in a previous blog, I was at times quite captivated by Langella's performance in Frost/Nixon, but I think the only way he adds an Oscar to his Tony is if the voters who for some reason can't go between Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke go his way. I'm gonna lean towards Sean Penn here, but if I somehow carve time out this weekend to see movies, I reserve the right to change my mind.
Preference: Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Bet: Sean Penn, Milk

2) Best Actress - Anne Hathaway, Angelina Jolie, Melissa Leo, Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet
I was gonna make some sweet comment about Jolie and Brad Pitt both being nominated, and making comparisons to Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward or even Laurence Olivier/Vivien Leigh but then remembered they weren't hitched. Oops. Salad dressing trumps adopted non-American orphans, I guess. Moving on. Jolie, Hathaway and Leo are all supporting movies that didn't get much love in any other major category, and buzz-wise have fallen behind the umpteenth nomination of Streep (though she hasn't won in over 25 years) and Kate Winslet's 6th nomination meaning it's time for the Academy to give the career nod thing. Streep has fans who loved Mamma Mia as well, and Winslet got two Golden Globes for two roles, yet not nominated for Revolutionary Road. Catholic turmoil vs. ex-Nazi turmoil. Finally, just going with my preference.
Preference and Bet: Kate Winslet, The Reader

3) Best Supporting Actor - Josh Brolin, Robert Downey, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Heath Ledger, Michael Shannon
Admit it, you had to look and say "you mean there are four other people nominated in this category?" Shame for Hoffman and Brolin, but the former has an Oscar, and the latter has been seriously building momentum the last couple of years for another run later. Michael Shannon's nomination was probably the biggest acting surprise, unless you count the fact that there's an acting nomination coming from Tropic Thunder (what kind of odds could you have gotten on that a year ago), Good on ya, Robert Downey, Jr. More comedies should get nominated, but that's another soapbox. For what it's worth, I saw the winning role, found it very powerful, and don't really wanna give away a gimme.
Preference and Bet: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

4) Best supporting actress - Amy Adams, Penelope Cruz, Viola Davis, Taraji P. Henson, Marisa Tomei
Okay, I expected Kate Winslet to get her Oscar here before the nominations were announced, so here goes nothing. Let's say that Adams and Davis will split votes for their movie (I would have picked Davis outright if this were not the case), Henson's work in this most-nominated movie has the best shot for an acting win, but I don't see it. I am totally in favor of hot older actresses playing strippers (Tomei is much more eager to take off her clothes in recent years. Seen Before The Devil Knows Your Dead? Everybody say "YES!"), but I don't think she's ever gotten the momentum for this to get there. So, I'll play the thing about Woody Allen's actresses doing well on Oscar night.
Preference: Viola Davis, Doubt
Bet: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Christina Barcelona

5) Best director - Danny Boyle, Steven Daldry, David Fincher, Ron Howard, Gus Van Sant
Hmm, I felt all the candidates for the movies I have seen did fine jobs. In previous blog posts I have spoke glowingly about Danny and Opie (just sounds like it should be its own movie or something), and wouldn't fault any of these five. Lemme pull one out here...
Preference: Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Bet: David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

6) Best animated film - Bolt, Kung Fu Panda, Wall-E
Okay, I'm taking an almost certain copout freebie here, but I have two things I want to say. One, Wall-E is one of the movies I have seen, so I should be allowed to pick it if I liked it. Two, I liked it, a lot, and wouldn't have even complained if it had snuck on to the nominees for Best Picture. So there.
Preference and Bet: Wall-E

7) Best picture - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire
My whole discussion should be on whether anyone can slow the momentum of Slumdog Millionaire, which has been quite the critical darling. The Indian fairy tale doesn't have major acting awards to shoulder some of the heavy lifting, and with the exception of Danny Boyle's Director nod, doesn't have any other real place to show love for the film. So, while the serious political messages of Milk make it best placed for the upset, I will say not this year.
Preference and Bet: Slumdog Millionaire

and several other "less major awards" I wanna see how I'd do, with preference/bets going towards movies I saw, wanted to see, or wanna go out on a limb on.

1) Original Screenplay - Milk
2) Adapted Screenplay - John Patrick Shanley, Doubt
3) Foreign-Language Film - The Class
4) Costume Design - The Duchess
5) Cinematography - Slumdog Millionaire
6) Visual Effects - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
7) Sound Editing/Sound Mixing: could I tell the difference? Probably not - The Dark Knight

So have fun, and let's see if I can match my Grammy post....

Movie Review, Let's Play Two...

It's Oscar time, and with thanks to Ernie Banks, my title points out that the award fare is out and about in quantity at your local gigaplex. So in the interest of kickstarting some blogging on here, not to mention that because I felt like standing in line to pay outrageous prices to catch the wafting smell of Metamucil and the occasional chirping of someone's cellphone that they were too stupid to turn off, I undertook two cinema experiences in the last week.

Slumdog Millionaire - A definite spin on your "local boy makes good" theme for the Western audiences. Not quite the Horatio Alger type of hero, unless bilking tourists was a method from those stories that I forgot about. Jamal is forced, under extremely painful coercion, to detail how a virtually illiterate teenager got to the verge of winning a fortune on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The backstory, laid down by question, is somewhat artificial in that as the story goes in order by question, so does the chronology of the life of Jamal. The struggle, the love interest, the rise to a dramatic finish, etc. That the ending is a little too easily-arrived at matters to me not in the least. I was so bitterly enchanted by the young Jamal and Salim (Jamal's older brother) as they struggled for their very survival in the harshest of landscapes that I will forgive the story for assuming Jamal would keep these minutiae in his head. The middle years did not enchant me quite as much, except for the circumstances by which Jamal was forced to forge a life separate from those of Salim and Latika, the apparent love of Jamal's life. It was the reaching of the present day, the absolute purity the protagonist shows in a situation that should be intensely stressful, and the decisions made by the antagonist that lead to his predestined downfall, that put this movie over the top. While I have not seen every Best Picture candidate, I can see how this one is coming on strong in the weeks leading up to the ceremony.

Frost/Nixon - I just finished watching this one, so forgive me if the thoughts have not yet finished becoming cohesive. I have not seen the award-winning play that preceded the movie, nor was I of an age to have watched the original interviews. However, I watched a couple of clips on Youtube (gotta love it, dontcha) so I am gratefully aware that a least a decent portion of the script is taken directly from the interview. We get a look of how a fairly lightweight TV personality managed to engage the only U.S. President to resign from the Presidency in a series of one-on-one interviews, and how both men variously triumphed at times in achieving their goals. Both leades reprise their roles from the play. Michael Sheen is engaging as the public personae of David Frost, and powerful enough as the struggling, doubting version of the man as well. Frank Langella, who previously won a Tony for his role as Richard Nixon, at times made you think this was Nixon. After views clips of the actual interview, I was even more impressed at this performance. If there is a definitely major award coming this movie's way, though, I think it should go to Ron Howard, for nicely giving actual footage of the time, progressing through the story, and using post-interview "follow-up" with some of the major players from both camps to serve as chapters for this movie. The selling point for me, I think, is that Howard allowed us to savor the people's victory of getting an admission of wrongdoing from Richard Nixon, the President, while allowing the viewer to be somewhat sentimental, because we have not been allowed to forget about the pain of Richard Nixon, the man.

Plans for more movie-watching are afoot, Watson...