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Yes, that time of year again. This time when the 9 nominees for Best Picture were announced I hadn’t seen any of them, and now that the award’s are here I’ve still only seen one. A pretty dismal year of movie viewing for me I must say.

Hugo

Of them all, I was most looking forward to this film based on the award winning children’s book “The Invention of Hugo Cabret”. The cast anchored by Ben Kingsly was pretty solid, but they are largely overshadowed by the visuals in the movie. The vast scenescapes of Paris, the dense commotion of the train station, and the complex compositions of whirling gears were striking enough, but set in 3D they were really awesome. This was Scorsese’s first 3D movie and it’s easy to see him embracing it and re-imaging himself as the same illusionist “maker of dreams” as Georges Méliès. I also was intrigued to learn of the historical basis behind the movie. As it turns out, not only are the details of Méliès’ career and decline fairly accurate, but Scorsese really portrayed the era well in details and even included shots of notably figures in the station.

The story itself was interesting, but the telling of it was somehow more labored than you’d expect; especially surprisingly so for a “family movie”. In particular, the scenes away from the visual stimulation and off-beat characters of the train station tended to drag along. And this left me feeling that Hugo was simply a good movie, with some really great animations and camera shots. So, while Hugo may not grab Best Picture, it has an excellent shot with Cinematography and Visual Effects.

Rooney Mara

About the only other nomination I can comment on is for Rooney Mara as Best Actress from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Fincher’s movie (like the book, and of course the original film) is an intriguing, dark and complex story, and those same attributes are true for Mara’s Lisbeth. She’s remarkably vulnerable, but fearless; cunning, and yet caring. I was surprised to learn this was the same actress who volleyed dialog with Eisenberg in the opening scene of The Social Network. In the Dragon Tattoo Mara has really shown her depth, and I look forward to seeing her in the squeals.

Once again Oscar time has rolled around and there’s another big batch of films to catch up with. Last year’s movies included some guilty pleasures, such as Kick Ass which took me totally by surprise and Tron: Legacy which finally fulfilled its long anticipation. But most of the nominated films had great things to offer, too.

The Social Network

I found it funny it took me almost a year to watch just about the only movie ever made related to my profession. Cops, doctors, lawyers…they get all screen time; web developers, um, not so much. The few movies that are about computer programmers are about hackers (and ok, there’s an element of that in this one), and I get it, there’s just not much drama in making web pages. But The Social Network is unique. It’s to be expected that some facts were probably amped up for the film’s benefit, but there’s still a heck of a lot of drama that unfolded as Facebook grew from a dorm room idea to its first million users (it’s now at 500 million as of last summer). It was awesome to see how simply frustration with girls and some keen thinking brought about the second largest online property of our time. I really give David Fincher credit for getting the technical details, too. While things never get too deep, the mentions of Apache configuratons, MySQL clusters, and Perl scripts are all spot on. There were also great moments of cinematography (I especially liked surreal the tilt shift rowing sequence), even if scenes with the fake cold breath vapor was noticeable. Last, but not least, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross provided an amazing soundtrack (one of my two favorites of the year). The Social Network should fare very well on Oscar night – and millions of people will comment about it on Zuckerburg’s little website.

My Pick: Best Picture! Best Music (original score), David Fincher for Best Director, and Aaron Sorkin for the Best Adapted Screenplay.

Inception

Doesn’t it seem like the premise for this story came from A Nightmare on Elm Street except someone decided you only wake up when you die in your sleep. Way to ruin that whole franchise! :) There was so much buzz this year about how this movie was complex and mind warping. To be honest, once I managed to suspend disbelief in the idea of “dream sharing” (and it’s odd framework of rules) I found it was very clearly laid out. Kudos to Nolan because I could see it becoming a mess under a different director. If anything the movie was a bit heavy handed with keeping the logistics clear (ok, we’re in this person’s dream now, then we’re going into this dream, and then this is how we’ll wake, etc). The theme of dream worlds and alternate realities has been done before, but this is told as a very fresh tale by involving intellectual theft and time dilation. Some of the acting is a little flat in my opinion, but far from distractingly bad. Inception is creative, thought-provoking, well shot, and extremely well edited. To the last point, the editing on the final scene was masterful. With a sudden cut to black we question whether we ended up in reality and if the spinning top was about to topple. But Nolan is telling us it doesn’t even matter as Matt Damon’s character stops watching his totem to focus on his kids. As the kids played, I imagined they might be singing “Row, row, row your boat…”

My Pick: Best Writing (original screenplay), and possibly Best Cinematography and Visual Effects.

True Grit

I’ll admit it. I’m not much for westerns. I never read “True Grit” the book, nor watched the John Wayne movie. The Coen brothers’ 2010 remake doesn’t make me want to do either. The story of pursuit and revenge in the old west countryside of Arkansas, just wasn’t too thrilling for me. Bridges, Damon, and Hailee Steinfeld (as Maddie) were all fine, but pretty flat in my opinion. Also, the source material is probably to blame, but the movie ends awkwardly by stumbling into another extra chapter after the climax; and then an epilogue which was unnecessary in my opinion.

127 Hours

I don’t know if Aron Ralston is insane or insanely brave, but I do know he’s an idiot for setting off solo for a weekend climb. I also know that James Franco is a heck of an actor. With him, the film is unsettling and hard to watch, but without him it’d just be unwatchable. Franco’s range of emotions really go far to make the movie move along, but ultimately it feel like the movie doesn’t cover much ground. I’m guessing this is in part because everyone knows the basics of the story going into it, and really there’s not much to be told beyond that. I did think the cinematography (for which it was not nominated) was nice, and the editing (for which it was) really captured Franco’s spiraling despair. Franco deserves strong consideration for Best Leading Actor, but to me the film’s in the lower half of the Best Picture noms.

My Pick: Best Film Editing and a coin flip for Franco for Best Actor.

Black Swan

Black Swan is definitely a odd little pic. It reminded me of Single White Female if Bridget Fonda was the crazy one. Portman does a great job of portraying a character who closes in on perfection while steadily losing grasp of everything around her. The supporting cast is all over the top, from the femme fatale Kunis, to the maniacal director and the crazy abusive mother, but assuming it’s all from Nina’s eyes, it works. The story isn’t all together unpredictable, but there’s enough rawness and distortion to keep the viewer off balanced and engaged. The moral I came away with was just eat a damn sammitch and you may not go bat shit crazy.

My Pick: Portman is the best I’ve seen for Best Actress, but I haven’t yet watched Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right.

The King’s Speech

This movie seems a bit like an Oscar sequel (prequel) to 2006′s The Queen in that it pulls back the veil of British royalty and shows how they coped during turbulent times. And as with that movie, I found I enjoyed The King’s Speech a few notches more than I expected. In this case, it’s the acting of Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush that really make the film. Firth is awesome as he swings from vulnerable and unsure stammering to frustrated and angry moments. But in my opinion, Rush is the real heart of the picture. His presence paces and guides the film, and occasionally relieves us with levity, just as his character does with Bertie. One does wonder whether George VI’s affliction and ascension were as historically significant as portrayed, but the movie certainly works on a more personal level.

My Pick: Rush for Best Supporting Actor. Firth in a dead heat with Franco for Best Actor. Runner up for Best Picture and Tom Hooper as runner up for Best Director.

The Fighter

Mark Wahlberg does a good job with this depiction of a boxer’s unlikely rise to the top, but it’s the supporting cast that delivers this movies into Oscar contention. Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo are all nominated for their contributions. To me, Bale’s crack addict antics came off a little over the top at times. I think he’s naturally pretty intensive, so he could have toned it down a notch. Adams on the other hand is a little low key for a fairly pivotal character. The real standout was Leo as Micky’s, sometimes misguided, mother. Her character is gritty, flawed, and very believable. As a whole, I think the film is all too predictable and follows the boxing movie formula, but it’s still a good treatment of a true story.

My Pick: Leo for Best Supporting Actress.

I’d just finished sixth grade when the original TRON was released, and I was probably as close to the target audience as you could get. As a sci-fi watching, video game loving kid just beginning to learn about computers and programming it’s no surprise it was one of my favorite childhood movies. Young enough to suspend disbelief as far as necessary, I was blown away with the imaginative struggle between programs, the MCP, and the intervening User. The bright neon geometric visuals were stunning (for the time) and the soundtrack bubbled with the sounds of futuristic synthesizers. My friends and I even would play out disk wars with frisbees and light cycle battles on bicycles.

Fast-forward nearly thirty years and Disney finally came around to making the sequel, TRON: Legacy. Although I waited months in anticipation of its release, I was fairly fearful the new movie would fall short. The visuals were sure to be amazing, but could they really form a decent story that sat alongside the original? Would this simply be a new unrelated chapter about The Grid? Well, most of those fears derezzed when the trailers surfaced showing Jeff Bridges as Flynn.

Without going into plotlines or spoilers, Disney pulls the sequel off pretty darn well. Not only does the plot sit nicely with the original, but it’s cleverly framed around the actual elapsed time since the first story. They really seem to embrace fanboy skeptics like me with nod after nod to the original. Little things like hacking the massive Encom door (and the exact dialog delivered again as it opens), the dusty handheld football game in Flynn’s office, Journey still playing on the arcade jukebox, and my favorite, the sole original style light cycle (with canopy and skinny rear wheel). Like Disney gravitates to, the main theme is pretty standard (father and son, coming of age, yada), but there are at least allusions to deeper ideas of science and religion and freedom of information. I will say the story narrowly escapes from getting too big for itself – the backstory of the Isos suffers for the sake of brevity – but the pacing holds things together pretty well.

The film’s visuals are amazing as expected. I saw the film in IMAX 3D and have to admit it was worth the $15 ticket. The IRL scenes are shot in 2D, so the transition to the world of The Grid is even more impressive. The 3D treatment was sharp, but subtle and avoided gimmicks – even in action sequences. And even though the CG used to transform Bridges into his much younger self wasn’t perfect, it was stilling amazing every time he hit the screen.

There were not only countless elements that echoed the original TRON, but plenty of reflections of other movies and characters. How could you not think of Luke in the Millennium Falcon when Sam is in the gun turret? And while Michael Sheen’s character, Castor, was certainly a riff on Bowie’s flamboyant Ziggy Stardust, I immediately thought of the Merovingian and Persephone from The Matrix Revolutions (a trilogy which probably owes much to TRON) when I saw him and Gem.
Lastly, the soundtrack (and sound design!) was fantastic. When I first heard Daft Punk was enlisted for the score I thought it was a perfect fit, except I was afraid the entire movie would be filled with pulsating club grooves. That’d be great as a DP album, but probably not so effective as a soundtrack. While there are some killer beats, the French duo really nailed it by crafting great symphonic electonica pieces I wouldn’t have expected from them. And even though I knew it was coming, their cameo may just have been my favorite film moment of the year.

Sure, it’s not quite the cinematic fine dining of Oscar winners, but in watching the flick, I felt a lot like the CG’d Bridges – transformed back to my much younger self.

End of line.

By expanding the Best Picture category to ten nominees this year, the Academy really made for a frantic Oscarpalooza for me. As usual, previous to the nominations I had only seen a couple of the top films, so there were more than ever to catch up on. For better or worse, that also means I have more impressions than ever to jot down.

Avatar

Contrary to all the buzz, Avatar was not the best movie last year. Sure, I enjoyed it a helluvalot more than Cameron’s last – Titanic, but it wasn’t the triumphant return I was hoping for. Maybe my expectations were too high after Cameron’s hiatus for the past dozen years. But Titanic aside, his past iconic works like T2 and Aliens, really set the bar up there for me.

In Avatar Cameron regroups with old friends like Sigourney Weaver and composer James Horner (both from Aliens) and spins a (new?) tale of a heavily armed military force fighting bipedal aliens with slimy exoskeletons blue skin in the name of corporate greed. In fact, at times the similarity back to Cameron’s past films is resounding. Take for example, the role of Michelle Rodriguez – she basically plays the dead-on combination of Vasquez and Ferro from Aliens. While it’s probably overly critical to find fault with these similarities, it all plays into the feeling that we’ve seen all this before.

Without a doubt, the movie is beautiful, and the 3D is mostly masterfully done. The art direction was smart (and deserves to win that Oscar easily), using wonderful colors to enhance the 3D effect while painting contrast between our world and Pandora. The imagery of the movie tries hard to make up for the story and dialog, some up of which is just painfully bad. The story itself was the big letdown for me. Action is certainly Cameron’s strong point, but it’s a shame to see it draped over such a tired plot.

Up

Pixar really rarely disappoints. Their animation and storytelling are consistently fantastic, and that makes their characters memorable, and often iconic. The only fault I found in UP was a bit of lack of focus. The tale of the boy and girl, man and wife, old man, and then the old man and the kid on their quest was really great. But as they started adding in the villain and the talking dogs, it sort of took me out of what was best in the movie. Once we were into the third act I felt the compelling storytelling had given way to visual gags and nyuk-nyuks for the younger viewers. I’d probably give this flick the Oscar for Best Animated film (over the also strong Coraline), but I can’t see it taking the top prize.

The Blindside

Although it’s not intentional, The Blindside gets an immediate handicap in that I never expect to be thrilled with a Sandra Bullock movie. Surprisingly, Bullock does deliver a great performance worthy of a Best Actress statue. Overall maybe the movie is dripping with a little too much Hollywood syrup, but it’s still a great adaptation of Michael Oher’s real life struggle.

A Serious Man

There’s always at least one Best Picture nom that I just don’t connect with, and this year the Coen brothers get this distinction with this one. The film isn’t horrible, but it strikes me as a hour a half inside joke about being Jewish. Yeah, I get it, the Jews are a cursed people. Whether it’s by one’s own doing (or undoing) or from fate’s own cruelty, bad things will happen to good people – but especially if you’re not a goy. This is conveyed from the completely unrelated Yiddish tale at the beginning of the movie to the unraveling life of the protagonist, and heck, even in the young Rabi looking for divinity in his parking lot.

District 9

I think it’s always refreshing to see a sci-fi movie wrapped around a serious theme. So often sci-fi is composed of mindless action and childish parables (see Avatar), that a movie like District 9 takes you a little off guard. Sure, the symbolism was awfully transparent (e.g. South African shantytown setting), but still there was a solid story there along with solid visuals. In the end, this is probably not an Oscar winner, not just because it’s sci-fi, but because it does drag a little. Still it’s among my top three for 09.

Inglourious Basterds

Basterds has a lot of what you’d expect to find in any Tarantino movie. There’s graphic character identifications, odd soundtrack cues, and of course the graphic violence (including a trademark room-clearing shootout). It’s an odd WWII flick to be sure and Tarantino himself refers to it as a spaghetti western. The story is fairly interesting, but plods along a bit in excess of 2 and a half hours, party because the dialog isn’t quite as snappy and the dark humor not as frequent as you’d hope for. The movie develops a couple different plot lines and spends lots of time away from the Basterds altogether. Even though the characters come together by the end, it still feels like a story divided. Brad Pitt is entirely unremarkable in this one, but Christoph Waltz earns his Best Supporting nomination with a careful, skin-crawling portrayal of an SS monster.

The Hurt Locker

I heard a lot of buzz about Kathryn Bigelow’s sleeper, so I was pretty intrigued what this Iraq war flick had in store. The movie follows roughly a month of duty in a US Army explosive disarmament squad. The subject matter automatically lends itself to great (and frequent) tense moments. The script takes a smart political stance in focusing on soldiers who are protecting fellow soldiers and Iraqi locals. There is only one scene in which you see them engaged in combat fire, and it’s purely in self-defense. It’s rare to see a war movie without an apparent political agenda (for or against), so I give Bigelow props for this. The movie is shot and paced very well, but my only compliant is that the characters never get very developed. There’s a good stab at a character arc by the end, but I still felt the movie was more episodic then epic.

Precious

That brings me to the last movie I squeezed in pre-Oscars – and certainly the “feel bad movie of the year”. The movie really pulls you through the emotion ringer, but unlike a few past movies in the same vein, it didn’t strike me as a contrived compassion trap. I’m sure that’s because it rings sadly too true. The cast is awesomely believable (and often cringe worthy) – from Gabourey Sidibe to Mo’Nique, and even (can’t believe it) Mariah Carey. I can never say I “liked” a movie like this, but it was powerful, and stands uniquely among the year’s best.

And the rest…

So I haven’t had the chance to watch Up in the Air or An Education. I am interested in both, but the ten nominations proved too much for my busy schedule. Now to see the official picks starting in just minutes!