AMC Oscar Marathon
“We’ll make those MOTHERFUCKERS CHOKE!”
Here they are. Finally. The Oscar nominees for Best Picture. A few surprises here and there, like the fact that they all came out in December. (There’s usually ONE that came out earlier, but not this time. So I had no time to see any of them before now except for Benjamin Button.) Here’s the biggest surprise of all: They’re all pretty amazing films! There really isn’t one that I would knock out for another. The one that I saw before yesterday was the weakest of the five, but it’s still amazing. (Benjamin Button may be interchangeable with The Dark Knight, but that’s a matter of opinion.)
Also, none of them are particularly upbeat films. There are two with semi-happy endings, but they tend to come at great costs to the protagonists. And as much of a happy sort of premise as Slumdog has, any movie that involves serious torture by electricity can’t really be considered a romp.
Alright, enough of that. How about some movies?
MILK
Directed by: Gus Van Sant
Written by: Dustin Lance Black
Harvey Milk (Sean Penn in, of course, an amazing performance) was America’s (perhaps the world’s?) first openly gay man who won a political position. He won, after three or four tries, the seat of a Supervisor of one of the sections of San Francisco. Then he was unceremoniously assassinated (along with the mayor) by one of his co-workers. The really interesting thing is that, according to the movie, he was not assassinated because he was gay, but because he would not vote with the co-worker.
Gus van Sant, of course, has somewhat of an agenda with making this film. He made it pretty conventional as opposed to how he makes most of his more personal projects. There’s no 10-minute scene of a character walking through a hall saying hello to everyone he passes. It’s not a film about two young men lost in the desert of life. And it doesn’t involve half an hour of pulling the camera out and then back in while someone practices their guitar behind a closed window so that we can’t even see them. This is conventional filmmaking at its finest.
Why is that? Because he wants this film to appeal to as many people as possible. He wants it to play in Peoria. And why shouldn’t he? This is a very important part of American history that Peoria doesn’t know shit about. What the hell do they want to know about a gay guy who won an office?
Maybe a movie like this will make them see those “queers down the street” as human beings. If you show Spicoli and Harry Osborn (James Franco plays Harvey’s long suffering lover, Scott) kissing each other in a normal, passionate way, then maybe these guys become a bit more human than they once were.
And the best thing about the movie is that Harvey WAS human. He was deeply flawed. He had all of these grand ideas about winning rights for gays, but he did this at the cost of his own relationship and was a bit maniacal about it. He did flaunt his gayness quite a bit, more for effect than anything, but it was still there. (He was a member of the much more showy gay community that had built up in his area of San Francisco.) And there was at least one point where I knew that the other gay politicians were absolutely right. They showed Harvey a flier showing all of the rights that were being taken away from people, but it never mentioned the word “gay.” Harvey went off on them because “They have to know who it’s being done to!”
But the people the flier was being handed to didn’t want to know that it was being done to gay people. It was much more effective the way it was worded, as if it was being done to everyone. But Harvey had to have the word “gay” on it and a “picture of an old queen” right in the middle.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Harvey Milk was a hero to the gay movement and to oppressed people everywhere. And this film shows him for the flawed human being that he was. And it shows us what a tragedy it is that we will never know where his life may have taken him.
The cast are all up to Penn’s excellence. Franco, Josh Brolin (who is up for Supporting Actor), Emile Hirsch (who is in a role originally intended for River Phoenix when Van Sant was trying to make this film in the early 90s), Diego Luna…all of them were pretty much perfect in their roles. (And, DAMN, was Diego’s character annoying! He’s right up there with Sharon Stone in Casino for Most Annoying Bitch Ever.)
Look for this one to take Best Picture and Best Actor tonight, possibly more.
Directed by: Stephen Daldry
Written by: David Hare
Based on book by: Bernhard Schlink
From a movie where some people are compared to Nazis to a movie with Nazis…and a lot more boy ass than I expected.
Hanna (Kate Winslet) isn’t really looking for anything when she helps a young boy named Michael (David Kross…Ralph Feinnes plays him as a grown-up). What she ends up finding is a young lover to teach the ways of sex. What Michael ends up finding is a love that will, strangely, last his whole life.
That’s because, years after the affair has ended and Hanna has disappeared from his life, she re-enters it when he is a law student. It appears that she was a member of the SS and a guard at Auschwitz who was involved in the murder of at least 300 Jews. Will he ever love again?
Ok, that’s not the important question in this movie. The really important question is, “What is evil?” Is Hanna evil because she was involved in the murders? Or was she just following orders? And why did she always have people read books to her? Did she actually know what she was doing?
All of the questions raised are what make this movie more interesting than a typical February-December romance. Sure, statutory relationships are all fun and games, but when a Nazi is involved, that makes for Oscar nominated fun. AND this is one of the first American/British movies that takes place in another country where everyone doesn’t have English accents! They all do German accents! It’s amazing!
It appears that director Stephen Daldry is about to start an adaptation of one of my favorite books, The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Clay. If he can make a film this bold and interesting out of something that has been done 100 times before, then I’m all for him adapting this rather complex book. Although, I’m not so sure about his project after that: My Fair Lady. Really? We need another one?! Wasn’t She’s All That enough?
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Directed by: David Fincher
Written by: Eric Roth/Robin Swicord
Based on short story by: F Scott Fitzgerald
Of course, this is the one that I had already seen and have already written a review of. But I will say this: it’s still a very affecting romance, even if it is the weakest of the five films up for Best Picture. And I noticed that Queenie’s daughter just kind of disappears. She’s born, then shows up again when Ben comes back and she’s about 12. Then she’s running the home (I think it’s her) when Ben shows up for the last time. There’s absolutely no conflict of “He’s not MY brother!” at all. She’s just kind of mentioned and barely shown.
Weird. But it’s still a very good movie.
Directed by: Danny Boyle/Loveleen Tandan
Written by: Simon Beaufoy
Based on book by: Vikas Swarup
Probably the most re-watchable of the five films if only because of its semi-happy ending. And remember that I said, “semi.”
Jamal (Dev Patal) is about to win the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. But before he can answer the last question, he is kidnapped by the cops and interrogated (read: tortured) until he confesses to his method of cheating. Funny thing is, he isn’t cheating. How does a “slumdog” know all the answers? Because of his hard-knock life, of course!
The rest of the movie is Jamal telling the story of how he knew each answer and how he keeps finding and losing his one true love and how his older brother got caught up in a gangster’s life. It’s a pretty typical story of a slum kid doing his best to escape, but it’s told in such a novel way that it makes the old story new again. While not nearly as lighthearted as I was led to believe at first, it is the happiest of the films and was probably my favorite just on a personal level. What could have been a heartbreaking tale of orphans living in the poorest part of India ends up being a pretty life-affirming story.
Then again, I’ll watch pretty much anything Danny Boyle does. And stick around for the credits.
Directed by: Ron Howard
Written by: Peter Morgan
Based on play by: Peter Morgan
This movie, like The Insider before it, never really seemed like it would be that interesting. How do you make a series of interviews into compelling drama?
Well, first off, make that series of interviews be with the most controversial president in recent history (barring the most recent ex-president) just after he resigned and did not apologize for his transgressions. And make the interviewer a showman whose career is on its last legs, who has never done an interview like this and who doesn’t really see its massive importance.
Then you add in an author (Sam Rockwell) who hates Nixon for what he’s done and a tv producer (Oliver Platt) who has just left public radio for ABC and is trying to make a name for himself. In the other corner, we have a secret service agent (Kevin Bacon) who seems to be in love with Nixon and an incredibly shifty publicity manager (Toby Jones) named Swifty.
From beginning to end, this movie had me enthralled. I’m not sure how writer Peter Morgan and director Ron Howard managed it, but these interviews and their story are made into high drama. I really want to check out the actual interview footage now, although I’m not sure that it could be much better than Frank Langella and Michael Sheen sparring and trying to get the better of each other. And I’m not sure that the actual footage could make you almost…um….feel sorry for Richard Nixon. Almost. And Langella found an amazing depth in a near-monster.
Overall, it seems to have been a good year for Oscar. All five of these movies are very good and deserve to be here. We’ll see how that turns out here in a few hours. But my vote goes to Milk and Sean Penn.
