I was looking at the best picture nominees, and I don’t get it. Yes, I was in the boat for putting The Dark Knight into the best picture category, and yes, I knew that the chances of it happening were slim. It is a blockbuster, a mammoth of a film, and it has “funny costumes.” However, it was engrossing, entertaining, very well acted, and gorgeous to look at. So what else do we really need?
Like I said, I knew it wasn’t going to get nominated, but I disagree with a lot of the Academy’s choices this year. This is twofold – first, for both Best Picture and Best Director, they completely ignored what I considered the two best movies I saw this year, the aforementioned Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan) and The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky). I’m not going to write a review for it, but I will say that The Wrestler was excellent on all fronts.
Second, the nominees they DID choose for best picture were extremely obvious. Right out of the Oscar-nod playbook. Think about it, you have…
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – the long-winded, super saccharine, epic romance of the year. Was it an okay movie? Yes. Was it worthy of being called “best of 2008”? Not by a long shot. I’m in full support of the best Cinematography nod, because the movie was awesome to look at – very rich, deep colors and lively setpieces – but the story was “meh” at best, and the actors just sort of plugged into it. Great looks, but not a lot of heart.
Milk – I liked this movie, but really only because of Sean Penn (who I thought did a great job) and the background story itself, which is inspiring and interesting. However, Gus Van Sant has ALWAYS struck me as awfully pretentious, and this film was no different. As a story, A, as a movie, B- at best. However, it played right into (A) the counter-culture fighting against insurmountable odds category (will “playing gay” become the new “playing handicapped”?) and (B) the “look, isn’t this pertinent to somethings that is happening RIGHT NOW? lol” category.
Frost/Nixon – To be fair, I have not seen this movie. However, it seems like if Ron Howard makes a biopic, it will get nominated for an Oscar. Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind jump out at me. Quick review: Apollo 13 was good, I think, I haven’t seen it since I was 12 years old. A Beautiful Mind was heavy-handed and forgettable. But let’s face facts – Ron Howard made How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carrey. He also made the universally hated adaptation of The Da Vinci Code. He’s even following that by remaking Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons. For these reasons, he should probably be banned from the Academy Awards, at least until the 10th anniversary of The Da Vinci Code passes. That movie actually had the line, “This cannot be this!” in it. Come on!
Now, I have not seen Slumdog Millionaire or The Reader, but I can say this. From what I’ve heard, Slumdog Millionaire deserves the nod, and I do wish to see it at some point. Danny Boyle has a history of making movies that work beautifully until the last 20 minutes, so I’m curious to see what happens. Now, I haven’t really heard anythign at all about The Reader, which leads me to believe it was chosen to fill the last Guaranteed-nomination spot, which is “under-the-radar film” slot. Again, I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know if it is worthy of the nod – but I’m not sure it can do much better than The Wrestler.
It’s not like I plan on watching the Oscars anyway.
The Ancient Order of Foresters 