As promised (or at least, as hoped for) here’s my order and review of the 10 films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Keep in mind that I’m not agreeing that these are the top 10 films of the year; there’s too many that I missed for me to feel like I can make a solid list at this point. As a general point, all 10 are certainly good films and there’s none that I can categorically say have no business being nominated. However, in my opinion, this list has 3 tiers. #s 9 and 10 are clearly the weakest, #s 8 – 4 are a step ahead but are all very close in quality, and #s 1-3 are clearly in a separate class. As long as it’s one of those 3 that win the Best Picture I won’t be disappointed no matter which one it is. So without further ado, here we go with films 6-10, with 1-5 to follow in the next couple days. Don’t worry, the reviews have already been written, so I promise there won’t be a month-long wait for them.
- 127 Hours – Guranteed to be the best film you’ll ever see about a guy who cuts his own arm off. All credit to James Franco, who gives a great performance, and to Danny Boyle, who does a terrific job of directing what had to be considered an unfilmable project. But at the end of the day, it’s a 10-minute intro, a 10-minute wrap-up, and an hour of watching a guy slowly die and hallucinate while he’s standing in one spot. Considering that, they did as good a job as can be done with that story, but there’s just a limit to how good that kind of story can be.
- The Kids Are Alright – This was the last one of the 10 I saw, and the one I was looking forward to the least. This film can best be summed up as 105 minutes of awkward conversations. Those who enjoy psychoanalyzing every scene and bit of speech will love this film. Every line of dialog or look from one character to the other is loaded with text and subtext and it just gets exhausting after a while. In a drama, you usually try to alternate between building up and releasing tension (so you can build it up again) but here they don’t do a very good of releasing. Good performances all around, interesting subject matter, and it’s certainly never boring, but it’s also a film I never see myself watching again.
8. Black Swan – I already posted most of my thoughts in the comment section, and I don’t want to repeat myself too much. This is a very good film that I just didn’t like very much. Just as it’s hard for a lot of people to understand how I can be so into the Cubs/Bears/Illini, it’s hard for me to understand how someone could be so obsessed with ballet. The result is that I found it very difficult to connect with Natalie Portman’s character. So let me just state explicitly (to save others the trouble) that I willingly admit that’s a flaw with me and not with the film. Again, great performances; Portman is well deserving of a nomination. It’s incredible that she basically started from scratch and learned everything in 8 months. But Vincent Cassell gives a really fine performance as well. Aronofsky’s direction, as usual, is excellent as well. Somehow, though, everything together just didn’t quite work for me.
7. The Fighter – This one surprised me a bit. All I knew going in was that it was a “boxing movie” and really how excited can you be about one of those? And really that’s basically all it is, but it’s just done very very well. Christian Bale gives a phenomenal performance and despite the fact that it is an acclaimed performance I still think it’s underrated. Playing a crack addict can be challenging. Playing a boxer can be challenging. Playing a character that’s both simultaneously and pulling it off is a real accomplishment, and Bale does it perfectly. I’d recommend anyone who watches this movie to look up Dicky Ecklund on You Tube and see just how good of a job Bale did at nailing his moves and mannerisms. The actual boxing in this movie is some of the best I’ve ever seen; it really looks like you might be watching Saturday Night Boxing on HBO. None of the Raging Bull dinosaur noises and slo-mo and none of the “what’s blocking?” you see in the Rocky films. And Wahlberg looks like he belongs in the ring and does his best work in the fights, so credit to him as well, even though outside of the ring most of the time he’s just kind of there. But I’ll also be honest; put Amy Adams in as little clothing as she’s wearing in this film and you’ve already got me.
6. Toy Story 3 – A bit ironic that what is arguably the weakest entry in the series is the only one to be nominated for Best Picture – pretty obviously a beneficiary of the expansion from 5 to 10 films. The public has gotten so used to Pixar constantly turning out one great film after another that it’s easy to overlook how big of an accomplishment that is. And this series stands out as a shining exception to the “sequels suck” rule. When you take the series as a whole you see a lot of common themes which are explored really well. Where most animated series are happy to take advantage of the fact that you can make time stand still, the beauty of Toy Story lies in its acknowledgement of the passage of time and the changes it creates. I know that I haven’t said much about this particular film, and I don’t think I need to. It’s another Toy Story that’s as good as the other two.
No comments:
Post a Comment