So, Every year I try (usually along with my good friend Thomas Latchford) to see every film nominated for “Best Picture” at the Oscars. Usually I do get a chance to see them all, sometimes I miss one or two. This year, since the number has doubled to ten (ten!) I don’t think I’ll get a chance to see every single one (for example, “Precious” is out of the theaters and won’t be released until after the awards, so that is out). Here are the list of films…
Avatar, The Blindside, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up and Up In The Air
Here’s what I’ve thought of them so far…
The Hurt Locker: This film was one I’ve wanted to see for a long time, and it had a large about of hype surrounding it… and it was worth it. The Hurt Locker was excellent. It fell right in step to the mindset of a man who’s only really good at one thing, disarming bombs. It’s also a film that I will want to watch over again, so that I can spend a little more time in the head of William James. He was very simple to understand his base functions yet, he became one of the more complex characters I’ve seen on screen in a long time. You understood why he did things, who he turned away and why he made felt comfortable with his choices, but that didn’t stop you from feeling like he was making mistakes. The final bomb disarming sequence in the film really drove home a lot of mixed emotions, and was a perfect way to sum up the war in Iraq itself, I won’t ruin it, but based on those merit alone it might deserve to win best picture.
The Blindside: I don’t know if I enjoyed this movie more than I should have because it was a great film or if because I had such low expectations for it. Sandra Bullock has had a very interesting year, between this, “The Proposal” and “All About Steve”. It was refreshing to see Sandra in this role, which is was quite good in, but does a great role equal a great film? If that were the case, where’s “Crazy Heart” or “The Last Station”? and would “the Wrestler” get the nod last year? There were a lot of great moments in this film, but I wouldn’t even think about this film as the best this year could produce.
Avatar: Ok, throw away all the CGI, 3D and effects, and what would this movie be? The story isn’t new, thought not every story has to be. The concepts are true and tried, but that doesn’t make them bad. Avatar will change film making, that much is certain, but looking at this film, how couldn’t it be decent? If you take a story people are familiar with, add in awesome special effects and then throw in great direction (say what you will, James Cameron’s direction is a strong selling point for this film) and you’re bound to get something good, but is it great? In comparison you have…
District 9: which out of these four films is a strong number two if not number one. District 9 was a film that blew me away in the theaters. Maybe I wanted to buy into the hype, how couldn’t I? After Transformers II, District 9 is masterpiece theater! District 9 was clearly (in my mind) the best Science Fiction film I saw last year (note: I didn’t see “Star Trek” or “Moon”, which I was told were both very good, I plan on seeing them… eventually) because it did what Science Fiction should do. It took a theme people knew, in this case it was “Apartheid” placed it in a militarized Johannesburg ghetto and then gave you a take on the situation in a larger than life setting so you could understand the theme / concept without becoming personally invested. District 9 did this, and created a film that, while only using $30 Million dollars, created something that could rival Avatar. While it’s not the “Best award to create something on a budget”, that fact is still, to me, pretty impressive.
Up: I tried to watch the movie but sadly feel asleep twenty minutes in after taking two Tylenol PM in the afternoon and didn’t think it would make me pass out. I haven’t gotten to this yet, next week!
So here’s my rankings so far:
1.) The Hurt Locker
2.) District 9
3.) Avatar
4.) The Blindside
On the docket for this week: An Education / Up in the Air (potentially last week in theaters), A Serious Man (out on DVD), Inglorious Basterds (on DVD / On Demand) and Up (DVD in Possession)!
I might try to find an illegal creative way to see “Precious”, I mean, if it comes down to it being the only film I haven’t seen, then I’ll just be desperate to have a complete picture on all the films.
There are other films, like “The Last Station”, “Crazy Heart” or the flat out ignored “Moon” that I plan on seeing later, but I think these ten films will keep me pretty busy.
