Thursday, February 11, 2010

Like everyone else in this rapidly expanding universe, I'm always apprehensive about the Academy Awards, and particularly what their choices for Best Picture say about the Academy/America/culture in general. I tend to come from the standard school of argument--that the Academy favors the middlebrow, the America-centric, the studio Hollywood film. But others have taken the opposite tack, attacking the organization for ignoring science-fiction blockbusters and animated films. And, considering strong fare like The Dark Knight and Iron Man, they have a point. The Academy people saw it that way, and this year expanded their list from five to ten.

But I would never criticize any organization simply because they don't have the exact same taste as I do, especially when I'm more comfortable targeting the politics of the thing. But really, there's already enough of that, and some people have worked themselves up into such ridiculous histrionics about Avatar's supposed "overrated-ness" that I see no point in trying to follow the same path this year.

The reason I pay attention to the Oscars is the same reason that I pay attention to so many different film polls and lists--I enjoy an opportunity to catch up on movies I might have otherwise ignored. So over the past few days I've watched all ten nominated films, and I would like to tell you what I thought of them (in alphabetical order).

Avatar: I happen to be one of those people that refuses to apologize for liking Avatar, and while I was severely engaged by nearly the whole thing, I refuse to be bothered by petty criticisms along the lines of questioning James Cameron's anti-colonial bona fides when he makes movies that both cost and make a lot of money. If this were to win Best Picture, it would be because this film does a more solid and thorough anthropological study of the fictional Na'vi than Dances With Wolves did with real Native Americans. The visuals are, as everybody has told you, as amazing as anything I have seen on a movie screen, and I applaud Cameron for spending a lot of the movie simply exploring his endlessly inventive landscapes. Surely, the pro-environmental plotline is heavy-handed, but I think Avatar is in more interesting territory when it has something to say about the state of masculinity in action movies, post-20th century. The final battle between Sam Worthington's sleek, feminine blue avatar and the General in that familiar Aliens mech suit at the end acts as a sort of contest between the future standard bearers of movie action, people and machines--and I will take this over the cold, metal war-thumping of Transformers any day. On the other hand, he's still running around with a machine gun...

The Blind Side: I remember seeing the trailer for this movie and thinking it was really hilarious, and in a way, embarrassing. Without knowing too much of the back story, it appeared to be about a friendship between Sandra Bullock and a Gentle Black Giant who is shaped by Bullock into a future NFL star. It looked like an alarmingly backward take on southerners and their issues with race, and I dreaded seeing yet another movie with a humongous black man who is kind to white children and loves butterflies or whatever. After seeing the movie, I can confirm it is indeed plenty embarrassing and still pretty bad; however, I will admit that Sandra Bullock is by far the best thing is this movie, and she probably deserves a lot of accolades. As for the rest: we've got a few horrendous child actors, a conflict introduced in the final act that seems laughably invented, and a few good football scenes. I was basically unimpressed, but it is very popular.

District 9: This film, though it contains a few good ideas, isn't nearly as politically incisive or thoughtful as I imagined it to be, given what critics have said. I still liked a lot of the action sequences, as well as the basic atmosphere in the scenes set in alien internment camps, but none of the parallels to Apartheid or Palestine seem very deep or probing. Though it confuses legitimate ideas with set-pieces, I still felt there was a lot left to be said about District 9, especially about the insane inhumanity of the South African government and how that came to be an issue after however many years of Apartheid rule. As far as statements against militarism and unchecked imperialism, I think Avatar is more thoughtful.

An Education: Sandra Bullock was good, but Carey Mulligan is so watchable in this movie, I had trouble concentrating on anything else. Which has its advantages, as once again we have a movie that is actually kind of slight (in a very Nick Hornby manner). For instance, Alfred Molina, who plays Mulligan's overbearing father, strikes me as a cipher throughout merely pretending to be complex and thoughtful. And Peter Sarsgaard's character is also kind of unpleasant and creepy, which makes sense at the end, but you wonder by 16-year olds would fall for him (the question of why he is so into Mulligan is more obvious). Mulligan, at the center, shows talent and a sense of comic timing far beyond her years.

The Hurt Locker: I hate to have to state the obvious, but this movie is basically as good as anyone says it is. I haven't seen any war film like it that I remember--not only is it one with a highly specialized subject (focusing on the dangers and delights of those who are tasked to disarm bombs in war zones), but it also has characters that never seem like they fulfill any war movie caricature--everyone in the movie is competent, smart, more than a little afraid, and always on the verge of losing it. And the action scenes are really exciting too, brilliantly illustrating Hitchcock's comment about the difference between surprise and suspense, and which one we know to be preferable in our Hollywood storytelling.

Inglorious Basterds: I was really surprised by this movie. Far from the hyper-violent and hyperstylized World War II movie I was expecting, the movie seemed to be more about Tarantino's love of film lagniappe than any particular action or character sequence. Tarantino's geekery really shows in the scenes set in the movie theater, and there are several conversations throughout the film that basically amount to the kind of conversations I imagine Tarantino had in film school. Christoph Waltz is good as the villain, easily overshadowing most of the Basterds, but this is also a movie that I think is more concerned with its female characters (this continues to be more of a Tarantino trademark with each passing movie). The scenes of extreme violence tread familiar territory, but there really aren't that many compared to something like Reservoir Dogs. Good for Tarantino. It makes me think that Tarantino could make a great movie even if he lays off the ultraviolence that basically defined his previous films.

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire: Other than The Blind Side, this was probably the worst film of the nominated, and I judge this entirely apart from whether or not the Klan would think this was an accurate depiction of black poverty. The problems start with Mo'Nique's evil mother, a cartoon character whose purpose is to be as scary and unforgivable as possible, basically so Precious can look as much like a saint as possible. Precious herself is not a very well-written character either, her distinguishing characteristics basically being illustrated by the hardships she faced and a fantasy life where she sees herself as a famous and beloved singer/model. I don't think it's fair of me to criticize Lee Daniels' depiction of the character in that she is dull (since she is supposed to be monosyllabic and illiterate at the beginning anyway), but I don't think it is wrong of me to complain that the movie does nothing legitimately insightful with her character: it's as if, by casting Gabourey Sidibe, people will find she resembles or typifies something about poor black people that doesn't need to be spelled out in the script. The result is basically anti-drama fueled by a series of drama queens.

A Serious Man: Despite those old complaints that Hollywood is masterminded by Jews, there don't seem to be many mainstream movies that look deeply at American Jewish communities and their customs. And certainly the few that do exist were never as dark as this movie, which ranks up their with the best Coen Brothers movies, in my opinion. Whether or not the Coens' intended it, I am the perfect audience for this movie, in that I have lived through enough of this and have found enough Jewish customs to be strange and off-putting to feel at times like I was in a Coen Brothers movie. While being a great Jewish movie, it's also a great secular movie (the two often go together) in that it really illustrates just how unhelpful religious guidance can be in the face of absolute tragedy--illustrated most plainly in the scenes between Michael Stuhlbarg's hapless, miserable protagonist, and a series of rabbis, each more obtuse and blind to the plight of modern American Jews than the last. And it asks us: should we really be using this bizarre, contradictory, and at times inhumane Old Testament as a means to make our lives better?

Up: Like Inglorious Basterds, I was really surprised and delighted by the third act of this movie, which morphs from a sad and austere look at old age and loneliness into an adventure movie that pits said old man against an army of talking dogs. It seems like every Pixar movie these days has at least one scene that will have me on the verge of tears; this movie has two. And Ed Asner is great as the old man, even as I was reminded of his old voicework for the 90s Spider-Man series as J. Jonah Jameson (at least I think that was him). I wonder how Pixar can top this.

Up In The Air: Another film I found to be generally successful, and a big improvement, in my opinion, over Jason Reitman's Juno. There seems to be two movies at work here: one that tacitly explores the intense emotions surrounding those who have been recently fired due to economic reasons, and another movie about a guy who basically lives in airports and rarely has to go home. These two movies could each have been satisfying in themselves, with the former just happening to match the tenor of our times, but thrown together, they basically amount to a vehicle for George Clooney's charisma, particularly in the way this lonely man interacts with the few females in his life. Despite the underlying tone of sadness that manifests itself obviously in the scenes with Clooney doing his job, a lot of the film is very hopeful in that it suggest that old, graying people are still capable of crashing parties, getting drunk, and dancing to Young MC. Of course, the film also suggests that you still have to be very good-looking to do that, but I credit Clooney with giving me hope that I will still be attending concerts in my 40s and 50s. As long as I stay alone and unloved.

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