Like last year, the nominees for the Academy Awards were announced and there were plenty of movies I hadn’t yet seen. Not that I really care about the Oscars or anything, but I find it to be an excellent opportunity to catch up on the year’s critical best.
Atonement
This movie is up for seven Oscars, which confirms that the Academy and me don’t see eye to eye. From the silly (and eventually annoying) typewriter-sampled score to the retelling of multiple scenes, this drawn out story of a confused girl and the lives she ruins just didn’t do it for me. Somehow the movie just doesn’t seem to cover much ground in the 2+ hours runtime. The little bit of humor and intrigue with the mistaken letter at the beginning was a promising start, but the relationship everything hinges on just wasn’t given time to materialize and that leaves the rest of the film rather pointless. The only kudo I can give is to the awesome filming of the long continuous steadicam shot through the vast beach of Dunkirk. But shame on the movie for losing me to recognize those technical achievements. My pick for: Achievement in Cinematography.
Across the Universe
This movie is only up for an Oscar in Costume Design (and will likely lose to Sweeney Todd), but I viewed this in the middle of the other flicks so I thought I’d throw it in the wrap up. Across is a musical set against a soundtrack of greatest hits from the Beatles. It follows a young Englishmen who comes to the US in the 60’s and his group of friends and their varied experiences. To me, musicals are always more about telling the music than a story, and this film isn’t really any different. Essentially it’s a two hour music video (and maybe 2 songs too long), but that’s not to say it isn’t fun. Most of the songs are covered well in new and interesting ways, and there are a couple great cameo performances by Joe Cocker, Eddie Izzard, and Bono. Toss in some imagery that ranges from psychedelic to disturbing and you’ve got a fun ride.
Sweeney Todd
Coming in with three nominations including Best Leading Actor is this musical centered around revenge, blood, and tasty meat pies. How could you go wrong with another Depp/Burton collaboration with more blood and gore than ever? You make everyone sing everything, that’s how. Ok, yes this is a film adaptation of a musical and I pretty much got what I expected. It isn’t a bad movie by any means, but it isn’t the high water mark for either Depp or Burton either. As expected, Burton’s visuals are excellent, Depp’s acting (and singing!) very good, and the pace of the film moves well. The supporting characters are well cast, too; it’s hard to imagine the movie without Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman. But in common musical form, the characters are really all flat and predictable. And then there’s the music. Although some of the songs have entertaining lyrics, I really thought too many were musically written in exactly the same fashion. I don’t mean that in the sense of reprisals of themes, but the actual composition. For example, almost all the songs end with a traditional huge build up and an extended high note. You can almost sense the subsequent pause for applause in a live performance while the set is changed. I guess that the music should have be reworked a little more to suit the medium. In the end I’d award the movie Best Art Direction and Costume Design, but sadly I need to snub Depp for Best Leading Actor. The nature of the film just didn’t let him exercise his acting chops to the extent of some of the other nominations.
There Will Be Blood
With eight Oscar nominations you’d expect a lot of this movie. Unfortunately I just ran out of time to watch this pre-awards…I’ll come back and update this in a day or two.
No Country For Old Men
Here’s another potential powerhouse coming in with eight nominations. In the supporting (but I’d say heavily supporting) role of the cold blooded pycho killer, Javier Bardem deserves the Oscar in my book. The rest of the movie was pretty enthralling – despite the feeling that you walk in and out in the middle of a bigger story with loose ends on either side. It’s got a sense of the Cohen brother’s quirkiness darkness, but with little humor this time. Yes, it’s a grown up drama, but not a boring one at all. Actual the story looks and feels like a traditional western, but redone is a more modern timeless setting. I think it’s also a contender for Best Film Editing and Adapted Screenplay, but the Oscars for Best Directing and Best Picture are probably a tad out of reach…at least in my book.
Juno
And lastly that brings me to the little film that could. Juno may come across to some like a ton of indie film bricks, but I don’t mind being smashed under the weight of its cuteness. After a year of Transformers, Pirates III, and all the other formula blockbusters, this flick chock-full of originality hit the spot. Sure, maybe the dialog (more in the beginning) is a little heavy handed in the hipster department, but there were a few gems in there, too (like, “He is the cheese to my macaroni”). Ellen Page did a great job with the title character; she was smart, cute, and really delivered the lines on point. Kudos to Jason Bateman, a character who I first thought was hurting the story, but in the end really deepened it. Michael Cera didn’t do much to carry the film, but he didn’t drag it down either. I feel he’s really just the same character as in Superbad, which was another movie with him as the ancillary straight man. What impressed me the most was how adeptly the film steered clear of being just another raunchy teen comedy or a preachy after-school special. Instead we get a fun, but not frivolous, and warm, but not sickeningly sweet, look at making the most from of a shitty situation. A realistic candidate for Best Picture? I doubt it, but it’d get my vote. Above all the other films, this would be the one I’d most likely watch again. As for Best Leading Actress, I haven’t seen any of the other nominees, but Ellen’s got this one in the bag. Best Original Screenplay has a strong shot, too, with “orignal” being the key word. And Reitman may be in the running for Best Director, but I’m not sure there’s enough here to get him the win.
