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No clever lede here. The Wrestler is just an all-around terrific movie. I don’t even really care about the Mickey Rourke resurrection story. I’ve never seen any of the early films in which he showed much promise, only Sin City. In fact, it’s a little obnoxious that so much of the hoopla surrounding the film is centered on Rourke and his story instead of how great it is in total.
Rourke’s Randy “The Ram” reached his peak as a professional wrestler in the 80s and now works the local circuit in school gymnasiums and American Legion halls while scrimping up the rent for his trailer. Marisa Tomei’s Cassidy’s rise and fall isn’t as dramatic, but she depended on her body at the strip club and now that she’s older she’s losing out to younger girls. It’s a simple but devastating story of faded glories and the inability to let go. They know how to do one thing and keep at it, because what else are they going to do? They may be stuck in the past but what else do they have to stick to?
I think a little of the film’s impact was muted initially by the shock of the graphic wrestling scenes, but as time goes on it remains in my head. The fate of those who depend on their youth for their livelihoods and peak early is an interesting theme and one that I’ve often pondered in non-film settings. I’m always interested to hear what has happened to ex-athletes or faded entertainment stars, especially those who experienced a brief but substantial time in the spotlight: too short to be set for life but too long to simply return back to normalcy. The college hoops star is on top of the world at 22 but nothing at 42.
(And then there was that trip to a strip club not too long ago with that awkward older stripper who had trouble finding up dances. So she just circled the room, nude and sad. I felt so bad that when I turned her down I had to tell her it wasn’t her, I just didn’t want any dances from any strippers. But if I did, no, I probably wouldn’t have chosen her either.)
The Wrestler only landed two Oscar noms, for leading Actor Rourke and Supporting Actress Tomei. Both are very well-deserved and Tomei’s inclusion was one of my personal highlights for nomination morning (between this and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead does she get any roles that don’t require her to be topless through half the film?). There’s not much I can say about Rourke that hasn’t been said- what a perfect actor to play a broken down piece of meat. But it really should have been in the running for more. Robert Siegel’s – whose other credit is The Onion Movie(!) – script creates wonderful characters and places them in some incredibly poignant moments, such as Randy’s good and bad days behind the deli counter at the grocery store or his devotion to an old wrestling Nintendo game and the local kid who humors him by playing with him. For a film with this pedigree and style it really could have played a part in Best Picture discussions but yet somehow did not.
Darren Aronofsky’s direction style puts us in the ring and nearly always hits the right notes. This guy’s had a heck of an early career. I hesitate to say he can do no wrong since I haven’t seen the polarizing The Fountain, but what a resume: The Wrestler is one of the best films of 2008, Pi is wonderful and odd, and the brilliant Requiem for a Dream is one of the best films of the decade.
And then there’s the case of perhaps the most puzzling snub of the year: Bruce Sprinsteen’s exclusion in the Best Song category. I don’t know what else you can ask for in a movie song. As Randy leaps from the ropes and the screen fades to black, the strums of Springsteen’s ode to the one trick pony and one-armed man punching at the breeze begins. It was so perfect thematically and tonally that it kept me glued to my chair through the credits. Commercials and trailers for the film backed with the song give me chills. It’s the best song on Springsteen’s pretty terrible new album and it’s one of my favorite songs of 2008. The Academy actually chose three very good nominees but none come close to “The Wrestler.”
Last year I hoped that The Savages wouldn’t be the little film to fall through the cracks of time and this year it’s The Wrestler for which I wish the same.
Well the nominations have been announced and those looking for surprises are happy this morning. The Grouches did get at least one nasty surprise.
Dark Knight Debacle
I was expecting the Academy to screw up and skip over Dark Knight for Best Picture. I thought Christopher Nolan had a better shot at Director. But the huge surprise was no Adapted Screenplay nomination. Four of the five Best Picture nominees were nominated in that category with the fifth slot going to Doubt. That’s a pretty shoddy film to be passed over for.
On the other hand, it got nominated in every technical category it was eligible for besides Score and Costume for a total of 8 nominations (including Supporting Actor Heath Ledger).
The Winslet Conundrum
Kate Winslet was aiming for Lead Actress in Revolutionary Road and Supporting in The Reader despite both roles probably being lead. She won these categories at the Globes. But the Academy puts her in the Lead role for The Reader and nothing for Road.
So we can play the what if game. Rules in the acting categories state an actor cannot: a) be nominated more than once in the same category, nor b) be nominated twice for the same role. If those rules were removed I would not be surprised if Winslet qualified for Lead for both roles AND Supporting for The Reader. When something like this happens the Academy goes with the role that got the most support and that apparently was Lead for The Reader.
Hooray for Little Movies!
My happiest moment came with the announcement of Richard Jenkins for Actor in The Visitor. Melissa Leo also managed an Actress nod for Frozen River when it seemed like her chances were fading. The biggest out of nowhere surprise may be that film’s Original Screenplay nomination.
Leo’s inclusion may have meant Sally Hawkins’s exclusion for Happy-Go-Lucky but that film still managed an Original Screenplay nod. And that interesting category ALSO includes the wonderful In Bruges. Plus WALL-E, which no one would call a little movie. Those interesting nominations pushed out films like Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Burn After Reading, however.
Long shots Darren Aronofsky and the film itself for Best Picture didn’t pan out, but at least Marisa Tomei was able to join co-star Mickey Rourke as an acting nominee for The Wrestler. That’s great, though the film really should have gotten a screenplay nod. And Bruce Springsteen’s exclusion for Song is downright confounding.
Other Surprises
I’m not complaining, but it was widely expected Dev Patel to get a Supporting Actor nomination for Slumdog Millionaire and he did not. Instead Michael Shannon from Revolutionary Road snuck in from way back in the pack to give the film its only major nomination.
Another puzzling exclusion was Waltz with Bashir in the Animated Feature category. The animated, foreign-language documentary was nominated for Foreign Language Film and ineligible for Documentary Feature. Kung Fu Panda and Bolt join WALL-E as Animated Feature nominees. After the near unanimous love for the film its absence is quite surprising.
So Jared got his wish for some surprises but managed to be nearly completely wrong in his predictions.
Some other prediction notes after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Oscar nominations will be announced on January 22. We’re counting down to the big day by tackling some tough questions and spouting some mad opinions. Today’s topic: What bona fide long shots should get a nomination?
Adam: Give Killer In Bruges a Shot
Segueing nicely from my last post, a long shot for Best Picture that I would like to see is In Bruges. As I stated before, this was one of my favorite movies of the year and I honestly think it deserves a nod for Best Picture above Benjamin Button and Frost/Nixon. I liked Frost/Nixon, but the fact that it is even in the running for Best Picture is a testament to the Academy’s complacency with mediocrity – as long as it is in the correct genre/format. Exceptional comedies or action movies are largely ignored in favor of familiar dramas, bio pics, or period pieces. I think The Dark Knight‘s seeming lock for a Best Picture nomination is the best thing to happen to the Oscars in a number of years. The fact that it is a long shot to win, however, just underscores the trend of prepossessed b***s*** that pervades the institution as well as the awards.
Jared: It’s Great WALL-E is in the Best Picture Universe But it Should Be a Nominee
That WALL-E is even in the discussion for Best Picture is a victory of sorts. But its status as a long shot is still disheartening. Sure, I could point to its status as tied for the second-highest metacritic rating of the year or its 96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, better than any of the current favorites for Best Picture as evidence to how highly-regarded it is among critics. Or its 8.5 rating on imdb, good for third among 2008 releases, as evidence of its popular appeal. Certainly it would seem strange for a movie with such widespread admiration among critics and the masses to not be noticed by the Academy. (Note that almost all of the arguments in favor of The Dark Knight work as well, if not better, for WALL-E). And yet I keep coming back to the impact it had on me. No other movie this year came so close to actually taking my breath away, to leaving me slightly stunned as I took an extra second after it finished to collect my thoughts. Surely that’s what filmmaking is all about. And surely that’s what defines a best picture.
John: Can The Wrestler Stage a Comeback (From Long Shot Status)?
The Wrestler is a really terrific movie that has stayed in my head much longer than expected. It’s a simple but classic story with a great, well-developed central character. I loved Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei’s performances as well as Darren Aronofsky’s documentary-style visuals. For a film that has been widely admired it’s odd that it hasn’t even moved onto the bubble for Best Picture. A lot of times a film garnering wide acclaim for only its acting will falter in other aspects (think La Vie en Rose or The Last King of Scotland) but that’s certainly not the case for The Wrestler. Every time a commercial for the film comes on and that Springsteen title song plays I get chills. I wouldn’t wish to promote it over The Dark Knight but it’s a shame that it’s barely in the conversation.
We all went with Best Picture choices, so let me throw out a few acting options as well. Burn After Reading was funnier in concept than in reality (meaning I enjoy thinking back on it than I did actually watching it) but it had some really terrific acting. As far as I know no performance has been promoted over the others, potentially causing the actors to cancel each other out, but it’d be great to see one of them pick up a Supporting nod. I’d put Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand at the top, but John Malkovich, Twilda Swinton, and George Clooney were also swell.
That’s what we say. What are some genuine long shots that deserve more of a chance?
Darren Aronofsky’s first three feature-length films all elicited a very visceral reaction from me. I watched Pi in AP Stats and found it sublimely confusing; it was exciting to realize a movie could be so off the wall and yet so compelling. Requiem for a Dream is nearly unwatchable. I was bored out of my gourd. The Fountain, on the other hand, is probably one of my favorite movies of all time. The three movies, of course, are exceedingly different, so I didn’t really know what expectations I should have going into The Wrestler. Strangely, while the film is different in style and tone from its predecessors, it is much more accessible and yet (or maybe therefore) had much less of an impact on me.
Maybe it isn’t surprising that The Wrestler sticks out among Aronofsky’s work. It is the only film he didn’t write himself, Robert D. Siegel gets the credit for this one. And the story has a much more linear feel than Aronofsky’s earlier films.
That’s not to say I disliked The Wrestler. I liked it just fine, I guess I was hoping to be a bit more affected. The main character, Mickey Rourke’s Randy the Ram, is certainly compelling in theory. Once at the top of the professional wrestling world, he now ekes out a living doing third-rate shows in fourth-rate towns, doing promotional signings in rec centers with over the hill wrestlers, and supplementing it all with a job hauling stuff at a local supermarket. He lives (when he can make the payments) in a rented trailer, and the only person with whom he can have a conversation seems to be his favorite stripper at a random joint. He’s a sad person, someone who lives and breathes and is only good for one thing, and he’s no longer supposed to do that.
In my mind, though, Aronofsky and Rourke dehumanize The Ram. He’s unable to have prolonged interactions with other people. He can’t maintain a relationship with his daughter. Can’t hold a steady job. His life has become professional wrestling. Not in the sense that he’s obsessed with it, rather that’s just who he is and what he was made for, like a machine built for a certain task, he was made to wrestle. Even his nickname, “The Ram”, acts to dehumanize him. And I’d argue that this dehumanization leads to a certain inevitability about The Ram’s path. So it is hard to feel badly for The Ram’s failures at life outside of professional wrestling any more than a Roomba’s life outside vacuuming. It may be tragic he was molded into a machine, but I’m not sure there’s anything inherently sad about a machine doing what it does until it can no longer go.
The Golden Grouches 
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