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!
