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The Grouches have plowed their way through all of the films nominated for the big eight awards. Now we make the case for which film or performance we WANT to win. Doesn’t mean we think it will win or even have a shot at winning. But if we had a vote on the nominees, here’s who we would pick, and why:
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY NOMINEES: Away from Her, Atonement, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood tells the story of…well…what, exactly? It isn’t really the story of an oil well/reserve, or the town in which it resides. Though both certainly figure prominently. The easy argument is that it is the story of Daniel Plainview and his relationship to the wells and town. Maybe, but the tacked-on feeling of the ending aside, I’m not quite sure that relationship is ever adequately described. TWBB is a sprawling effort of a movie, and if not for the magnetic performances of Paul Dano and Daniel Day-Lewis, its meaning would have been much more pronounced.
Atonement is a sweeping epic that actually works a lot better before it becomes sweeping or an epic. It’s a melodrama about love torn asunder by a false accusation, an offense that will reverberate through the lives of all involved for a long, long time.
It all begins at a country manor where Keira Knightley’s Cecilia lounges in the garden and James McAvoy’s Robbie is the Oxford-educated gardener’s son. The two are long-time friends who grew apart at university but come back together one fateful day. Cecilia’s sister Briony, a precocious girl of about 12 played by Saoirse Ronan, is a budding writer who stumbles across certain glimpses of Cecilia and Robbie’s lustful relationship: a dirty letter, a teasing incident in a fountain, a tryst in the library. Briony’s imagination runs wild and she begins to think Robbie is a sex-crazed maniac. Later, when something horrific does happen, Briony misidentifies the perpetrator and Robbie is arrested.
I go into detail here because this part of the film, roughly the first third, is very good. In a long, sweeping epic it’s when the story stays focused on a country manor that it really works. Most of it is fairly undramatic, but the film ratchets up the tension by showing us multiple scenes from different perspectives. What looks sinister from Briony’s perspective looks flirtatious from Cecilia’s. The time-shifts and piercing score complement this very compelling segment.
Alas, as the scope expands the film loses its punch. Read the rest of this entry »
A third of the way through Atonement, I was figuring out how I was going to make room for it in my top five. But as Robbie went, so went the movie. And instead of praising one of the year’s best movies, I’m here to try and figure out what went wrong. I’m not a fan at all of how the movie was broken into three distinct parts, jumping years into the future each time (as a side note, I’ll mention it later, but I felt There Will Be Blood suffered similarly). I appreciate how it gave a jarring feel to the movie, but those gains were more than offset by the storytelling problems it created.
“Jarring” is a good word to describe several aspects of the movie, it is some sort of motif, if you will. Not really sure anyone could watch the first ten minutes of the movie and see the rape of a girl in the future. Briony peeling back the bandages of that one soldier only to find a good chunk of his head missing. The jumps in time, as I mentioned. And the ending, especially. I haven’t read the book, and I’m going to assume the ending is the same there, but that doesn’t mean the filmmakers had to keep it. And (spoiler warning, as always) that Robbie and Cecilia both die, and we don’t find out after the fact, is incredibly jarring. That’s an incredibly unsatisfying ending, in my mind, in terms of how these movies usually end, but one that I thought suited the movie perfectly. I wouldn’t have changed a thing about that. Also, as a brief response to Brian, I didn’t have any problem buying the love between Robbie and Cecilia. Methinks Brian’s just not a romantic.
Part of me wonders if the reason I’m not higher on this movie is because I’m such a sucker for a love story or mystery set on a British manor, and thus bitter the movie had to move on to a broader scope. Still, the disjointed feel of the movie was a bold choice, but one that ultimately was a mistake. It makes the movie feel more distant. Read the rest of this entry »
By now you’ve heard how Away From Her is classic Oscar bait: mental illness, old people, former Oscar winners, old people having sex. Which is fine, Oscar may be silly for only considering a small subset of movies, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that subset is silly. And indeed, Away From Her is a perfectly decent movie. But, I found it surprisingly emotionless. I think that’s why Gordon Pinsent touched off some discussion here. For the most part, his is the only character allowed to show emotion. Even then, there are very few scenes where we get to see anything other than him refusing to accept the inevitable, resigned frustration, and resigned acceptance. Brian remarks that since we didn’t really get to see Grant and Fiona before Fiona’s slide, we can’t really be emotionally invested in them. I’d agree with the lack of emotional investment, but I’d argue that director and screenwriter Sarah Polley had more options at her disposal than only showing earlier parts of their relationship. It is therefore somewhat interesting to watch the events of the movie, but hard to “care” about them, in the sense of caring about the characters. Anecdotal evidence (a phrase that generally translates to: “I’m too lazy to do actual research, but this sounds plausible”) suggests that adapting a movie from a short story can lead to poorly fleshed out, too-sparse movies.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is one of those films whose technical mastery I can admire but failed to really grab me.
Julian Schnabel has created and interesting, unique, and innovative film exploring the experience of a man locked into his own mind, able to communicate with only an eyelid. For roughly the first half of the film, we see only what Jean-Dominique Bauby, the unfortunate cripple, sees. This means a limited, often unfocused and confusing view from one eye. It’s a very neat concept and we can really feel Bauby’s initial bewilderment. These are paired with some beautifully-shot fantasy sequences. Janusz Kaminski scored a well-deserved Best Cinematography Oscar nomination for his work. The view from the one eye was probably my favorite part of the movie and I think it lost some punch when eventually the view pulls away and we see Bauby as an outside observer. Read the rest of this entry »
Oscar bait much? Let’s see. French movie? Check. Debilitating illness? Check. A guy who blinks out an entire book, for crying out loud? Check. A totally engrossing movie? Check. Wait, what?
Well, first and foremost, let’s skip right to the important part. Mathieu Almaric. Villain in Quantum of Solace. The most important movie since…well…Casino Royale. There are few things that matter more than the next Bond movie. So while the Bond producers made an unforgivable decision on the screenwriter, I’m happy to report they continue to do well with choosing actors. I’m very much looking forward to Almaric playing a baddie.
So it took me a long while to figure out first, if I liked the movie, second, how much I liked it, and third, why I liked it. End conclusion: I liked it a lot, but I’m still not even sure why, so please excuse the stream of consciousness nature of this post.
As you can tell from some of my other reviews, I kind of like comparing movies to other movies. Except There Will Be Blood is the most original movie I’ve seen in a long while, and the closest comparison I can make is Citizen Kane, which is unfair to both Paul Thomas Anderson and Orson Welles.
I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie (which also brings up the point: Always go into movies with low expectations.). It had a decent plot that moved along while “moving” the audience; the performances by the main characters were, in my opinion, terrific; and the supporting pieces of the movie (scenery, music, supporting cast) along with the camera work were very well done. All-in-all a good, solid movie (not Best Picture quality, but good).
Atonement pivots around a letter that should never have been written, and I wouldn’t go nearly as far as saying that this movie shouldn’t have been made, but its existence seemed rather irrelevant. Having not read the Ian McEwan novel, I still felt the distinct sense that I was watching a film adaption of a very lyrical novel. Apart from one sequence, which I’ll get into later, I never felt invested in the movie; it lacked the epic qualities I’d expect of a period piece. Not all great stories make great movies, and Atonement is no exception. Read the rest of this entry »
Ah, finally. I’ve been waiting oh so long to take Brian to task. He writes in his No Country post how “endings aren’t that big a deal to [him].” He then goes on to some tortured math, equating the final Sopranos scene and the closing shots of The Departed to 10% of a movie. Dear oh dear. I think even the argument that each X percent of a movie should be weighted equally is flawed, though I’m not fervently opposed to it.
A somewhat appropriate analogy might be a gymnastics routine. Like the floor exercise, a movie can be filled with Celine Dion songs and flips and never ever leaving the mat (oh, and if you are Brian, 15 year old girls), but if you don’t stick the landing, the judges are going to dock you like crazy. Oh, um, I might be a bit of an Olympics junkie. Read the rest of this entry »
I largely agree with John, so I’ll try to stick to the points where we disagree a little. But, ultimately, “If you’ve seen Gone Baby Gone, you probably wouldn’t be considering it for an Oscar” is accurate. I’d extend that to Supporting Actress. Nothing against Amy Ryan, but I kind of feel she’s getting credit for being a Broadway actress here. To me, while I did definitely appreciate the character, it struck me that I’d seen pretty much the same thing on Law and Order. You know, if I watched Law and Order. I will say that Ben Affleck getting a directing nomination would make me extremely happy, if only for the sheer ridiculousness of the concept. That said, I think there’s near-unanimous agreement that he’s a much more capable director than generally thought possible.
I absolutely agree with John about the characters in the movie. For the most part they were subtle and textured, features which are absolutely essential to a movie of this sort, I think. Michelle Monaghan is there to look pretty, I suppose. Which is nice and all, but her virtual lack of a purpose was rather striking, contrasted with how well-thought out most of the other characters seemed to be.
I do disagree with John about Casey Affleck’s moral dilemma. I won’t rehash it here not to avoid spoiler talk, but just because any short description of it isn’t worth the time or space. Personally, I thought it fit in rather nicely with the whole “subtlety” concept of the movie. John, had they made it a choice between a warm, loving family and a place where she’d be living in a crack den with the risk of getting hit on a regular basis, would that have improved anything for you? Because it wouldn’t for me. As it is, the kid is going to be screwed up, no matter what. But I think it is pretty clear that growing up with Morgan Freeman would mean she’s living in a nurturing environment, where living with her mom would mean she’s pretty much raising herself. And I think that’s a very interesting moral dilemma. You say there’s only one right answer, and maybe there is. But, especially from one econ guy to another, is it really the most efficient solution? I don’t think you are maximizing utility, you likely aren’t making the world a better place, and there is very strong evidence that you are making the girl worse off. To me, that’s something to think about.
Oh, and yeah, the final scene is absolutely fantastic. Along with the obvious one in Eastern Promises, one of my favorite so far.
I’d be surprised if I end up believing this movie should be nominated for anything, but I’d definitely recommend it to certain people.
Gone Baby Gone is a film I liked a lot and it’s one of the best police procedurals/crime thrillers I’ve seen in a while. That said, I can’t help but think that I could limit my comments here to, “If you’ve seen Gone Baby Gone you probably wouldn’t be considering it for an Oscar.” But I’m a verbose jerk so I won’t. (Note: this post is intentionally vague to avoid spoilers. That’s not the case for most of these posts, but feel free to click through.)
I see it having potential in two categories: Adapted Screenplay and Amy Ryan for Supporting Actress. Almost every big movie this year is an adaptation so I can’t imagine Gone Baby Gone sneaking in in that category. Ryan was pretty darn good as the mother of a kidnapped girl (and oh yeah a drug user and all around scumbag) and she has nearly swept the early critic awards, but I’d be surprised if there aren’t 5 supporting performances better than hers. I don’t think the movie handles the important question regarding her character very well so that whatever brilliance she might show in the role gets sort of lost. So not a bad choice- I wouldn’t mind her getting a nod and I’ve loved her work on The Wire, but I think it may be a case of too much love for perfecting a Dorchester accent. Read the rest of this entry »
Away From Her seemed to be the Little Critical Darling That Could from this summer. It centers around Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and Fiona (Julie Christie), a long-married couple in Canada. She is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and they struggle with the decision to put her in a nursing home. When she does eventually enter, the home’s rules prevent Grant from visiting for the first month while Fiona settles in. When he does visit, she is distant towards and had made friends - or more? - with another resident. Even more than a film about Alzheimer’s this is a film about marriage. It’s revealed that their marriage has not always been smooth and Grant feels like he may be paying for past transgressions when Fiona slips away from him.
Away From Her is about 40% great. The first part is tremendous. Fiona has more and more episodes and Grant anguishes letting her leave to go to the home. Their love and pain is incredibly moving.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t keep it up. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m going to throw this out there to start things off: endings aren’t that big a deal to me. I see a movie’s ending as just one small part in the larger sum in weighing whether or not I liked it. I think Signs is a great movie; it’s thrilling, funny, and has shades of Hitchcock’s The Birds, which I also love. But I understand when people say the ending sucked…and while I half-heartedly agree with them, I really don’t care that much.
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