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Joe Blevins 
"Don't I look handsome?"
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 Posted - 02/27/2010 : 01:33:43
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Greetings again to one and all.
I'm happy to report that tomorrow, barring unforeseen circumstances, I will be attending the Best Picture Showcase, an all-day marathon of Best Picture nominees. It looks like the only theater I can get to is the AMC South Barrington, about 13 miles from my home. It's a little farther than I normally drive, but what the hey? It's only once a year.
Well, twice this year actually. Because there are 10 nominees, the event has been stretched over two weekends. Anyway, though, my plan is to watch all 10 nominated pictures and write a little about each one. Tomorrow's schedule is as follows:
Avatar
Up in the Air
Precious
The Blind Side
Inglourious Basterds
Basterds is the only one of that crowd that I've actually seen (twice!) in theaters already, and since it comes at the end of the day, I'm not 100% sure I'll stay to watch it again. I just might, though. As with my other reviewing projects, this is partly an endurance test. We'll see.
In any event, I do hope you will join me in this thread as it is updated. |
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ChocolateLady 
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 02/27/2010 : 14:37:37
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I saw Precious last weekend, and I think you'll enjoy it... er... well, some of it is totally appalling to watch, but still... worthy of the nomination, that's for certain.
(Which is more than I can say for Avatar.) |
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 02/28/2010 : 20:35:15
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Part One: The First Five Nominees
Well, yesterday was the first day of the Best Picture Showcase, and I dutifully � hell, enthusiastically � sat through all five films on the schedule. I've got another five flicks to go next Saturday, but I thought I'd write about the first day while it was still fresh in my memory. As it turns out, due to the availability of various prints, the schedule was not the previously-published one which I gave you earlier. Instead, the line-up for the day was as follows:
10:30am � Avatar
1:45pm � Up
3:45pm � A Serious Man
6:30pm � Precious
8:45pm � District 9
An interesting and varied line-up, wouldn't you agree? I'd seen A Serious Man in theaters and Up on DVD, but the other three were new to me. Let's tackle these films one at at time.
Avatar � Now, at long last, I've seen Avatar, so at least I know what all the hype was about. Personally, I can see why the movie was a hit. I'm not too proud to admit I enjoyed this quite a bit. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the 3D, but once it kicked in I was pretty well entranced by the visuals � which were often like looking at an exotic fish tank. Sure, the story is simple and cliched (and, yes, rife with plot points taken from other films), but I must have found it fairly compelling because as I was watching the four-way tug-of-war between business, science, the military, and the Na'vi, I started thinking about the many real-world historical precedents for this story. I'll admit, it's not a subtle film, but I think it works as a parable. It's a big, special-effects-laden action film with at least something on its mind. I appreciated that. GRADE: B
Up � This is one of those movies which gives the term �crowd-pleaser� a good name. An adventure film as exciting in its own way as Avatar, Up has some very endearing characters at its center and tells a remarkably moving story... in addition to being funny, well-paced, and technically immaculate. This is a beautifully-crafted film which is a joy to watch. Even the end credits scroll is a work of art. I had seen the film before, but I was surprised to find myself getting choked up at several points in the story. (Up was the only one of the five films to have this effect on me.) There is very little I could add to the film's chorus of approval, except to join it and contribute one more voice. GRADE: A
A Serious Man � This was my pick for Best of 2009, but it should have the words �Not For All Tastes� stamped on every poster. I was heartened when the theater employee acting as �host� for the day said it was his favorite movie, too, and I was glad that the audience laughed and gasped at all the right places. So imagine my disappointment when the film's bold ending � in my opinion, one of its best features � got a very vocal and negative response from several audience members, who then proceeded to denigrate the film during the break. �Too weird,� they said. I was thinking, �But you laughed all through the movie! I heard you!� I don't know how it works in other countries, but American movie audiences tend not to be very adventurous and are extremely unforgiving when a movie strays even slightly from time-tested formulas. They want tidy three-act plots with Good Guys, Bad Guys, Obstacles to Overcome, Darkness Before the Dawn, and most especially, Neat Endings which practically tell you What to Think and How to Feel. A Serious Man does not do any of this, and God bless it for that. I'm glad the chuckleheads in the audience had to sit through it. GRADE: A
Precious � The audience's far-too-conservative reaction to A Serious Man left me with a bad taste in my mouth, so this was the worst possible time for me to sit through a very typical Oscar-bait film like Precious, essentially another formulaic Inspiring Teacher/Rise from Poverty & Despair movie. But unfortunately, this was where Precious fell on the schedule. Look, I'm a human being. I cannot help but be moved by the story of Precious Jones and the teachers and case workers who try to help her. But I also know when a movie is trying to play an audience like a piano. There's just no getting around the fact that Precious is kind of earnest and hokey with a lot of show-offy speechifying. As an example of the species, Precious is very fine filmmaking � I absolutely loved the dream and fantasy sequences � but it feels like only a slight variation on a storyline I've seen a dozen times before. I will give the movie credit for at least being less cloying and sentimental than other films of this type, and I am willing to acknowledge that I was in a rotten mood when this one started and that I might have thought more highly of it had I seen it under different circumstances. GRADE: B-
District 9 � I'm amazed that this film was a Best Picture nominee, let alone an international box office hit. Not that it's bad, mind you, but gosh is this unpleasant � a vomitorium of a movie, awash in viscera and debris, a film which wallows in garbage, filth, pain, and misery for nearly its entire running time. District 9 is an ugly, ugly film. Nearly everything about it is harsh and uninviting. The aliens look like live bait, and their speech sounds like the death throes of a malfunctioning garbage disposal. The humans, generally speaking, are even worse � lying bureaucrats, bullying military men, and Nazi-like scientists. The movie's pervading sense of chaos and despair is almost never relieved. The film, for those who haven't seen it, is a mockumentary, and I was grateful for the occasional cutaways to �talking head� interviews with people in offices, sitting behind desks and giving calm, reasonable testimony to the camera. These are the few islands of sanity in this sea of madness. Maybe it was because the film played at the end of the day, but District 9 was the only film to play to absolute dead silence for its entire running time, and the two women sitting next to me walked out during one of the movie's prolonged and frequent gross-out scenes. GRADE: B
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Edited by - Joe Blevins on 03/19/2010 02:52:06 |
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 02/28/2010 : 20:51:40
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Other Observations About the Day
A movie theater is an odd and disorienting place to spend 12 consecutive hours, even a giant 30-screen mega-megaplex like the AMC South Barrington, which is where I spent my Saturday. Last year, the event was held in a mall, so between movies you could go to stores or restaurants without leaving the building. But here there were just more brightly-lit hallways leading to yet more theaters. It's a very sterile, artificial, and closed-off environment.
But generally, I got through Day 1 very well with minimum fatigue. Avatar was the first film of the day, and it was shown in an auditorium equipped for 3D. The rest of the films were shown in the next room over, and I couldn't help but noticing the other 4 films were all 1.85:1.
Again, I attended the event alone and there were times when I felt a little bit lonely and bored between movies, but mercifully the breaks were generally brief. Before each movie, the event's host would come out and ask trivia questions for prizes. I'm happy to report that I won twice and got an Up in the Air poster and a Wolfman t-shirt for my troubles, though the latter turned out to be a child's size shirt. (Why a gory horror movie would have a t-shirt intended for a small child, I do not know.) I'm still puzzling what to do with that. Give it to charity, I guess. |
Edited by - Joe Blevins on 03/03/2010 00:58:18 |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/01/2010 : 03:06:18
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So I wasn't quite the last person on the planet to see Avatar then?!
Totally with you on Precious, although I'd still like the lead to win some awards for a great performance.
I wasn't so sure about A Serious Man, although I love 'unsatisfying' endings. Maybe I felt like it was trying too hard.
I haven't seen the others, so haven't read your bits about those. |
Edited by - Demisemicenturian on 03/01/2010 13:53:07 |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/01/2010 : 03:14:52
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Thirty screens is huge! I haven't seen bigger than about fifteen here.
I've also seen five or six films at an out-of-the-way non-mall cinema before, and it is a weird experience, having two meals' worth of snack food! I much prefer city-centre cinemas, which feel like part of the world. |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 03/01/2010 : 06:01:56
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quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
So I wasn't quite the last person on the planet to see Avatar then?!
No, that will be me, because I do not intend to see it at all.
quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
I wasn't so sure about A Serious Man, although I love 'unsatisfying' endings. Maybe I felt like it was trying too hard.
I'm thinking that this, more than any other Coen movie, needs to be seen more than once to be fully appreciated. I know I want to see it again - that's for sure!
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Wheelz 
"FWFR%u2019ing like it%u2019s 1999"
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Posted - 03/01/2010 : 13:38:18
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Glad you got to go, Joe!
Here are some quick thoughts:
I had not seen any of this week's selections yet.
Avatar - Richly imagined and spectacularly realized. I was fully engrossed in Pandora and could therefore forgive all the cliches and the thin, predictable plot.
Up - Actually my favorite film of the day. It was surprisingly touching and very very funny. Possibly Pixar's best ever.
A Serious Man - I am seldom disappointed by the Coen brothers. In fact, I can't even say this film was disappointing, just... unsatisfying. The characters were interesting, there were a number of wonderful, memorable moments; however (spoilers) unless a tornado blowing everybody and everything away (which may or may not have happened) counts as plot resolution, there was NO plot resolution. I'm sure it was intentionally drawn that way, of course, but it didn't work for me. 2 hours of the guy getting dumped on, until finally -- he gets dumped on some more. Great.
Precious - Not the best choice to follow A serious Man. This is probably the single most depressing film I have ever seen. Yes, it's brilliantly acted, but it's pretty much a downer from beginning to end. It even looks dreary.
District 9 - After the last two, I was ready for a good old alien shoot-em-up, but I didn't know what this was about at all. Much more gut-wrenching, and with heavier themes, than I expected, but I was riveted throughout.
After all five, I felt worn out, emotionally and even physically. It was a more intense day than any of the 5-nominee showcases I've done. I think next week will be a bit less tense.
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Edited by - Wheelz on 03/01/2010 17:23:45 |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 03/01/2010 : 15:15:31
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quote:
Originally posted by Wheelz
A Serious Man - I am seldom disappointed by the Coen brothers. In fact, I can't even say this film was disappointing, just... unsatisfying. The characters were interesting, there were a number of wonderful, memorable moments; however (spoilers) unless a tornado blowing everybody and everything away (which may or may not have happened) counts as plot resolution, there was NO plot resolution. I'm sure it was intentionally drawn that way, of course, but it didn't work for me. 2 hours of the guy getting dumped on, until finally -- he gets dumped on some more. Great.
Ever read the book of Job, my friend?
Now do you get it?
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 03/01/2010 : 18:29:42
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quote:
Originally posted by Wheelz
A Serious Man - I am seldom disappointed by the Coen brothers. In fact, I can't even say this film was disappointing, just... unsatisfying. The characters were interesting, there were a number of wonderful, memorable moments; however (spoilers) unless a tornado blowing everybody and everything away (which may or may not have happened) counts as plot resolution, there was NO plot resolution. I'm sure it was intentionally drawn that way, of course, but it didn't work for me. 2 hours of the guy getting dumped on, until finally -- he gets dumped on some more. Great.
In the words of Richard Nixon, "Let me say this about that."
I agree that the movie is unsatisfying, but I don't see that as a flaw. On the contrary, I think it is designed specifically to be unsatisfying, to be frustrating, to be challenging, to leave you with doubt and uncertainty. I say, kudos to the Coen Brothers for having the guts to do this in such an otherwise cowardly and safe moviemaking world. A Serious Man does things that movies almost never have the balls to do! Movies generally wrap up everything tidily so that everyone in the audience doesn't have to do the least bit of thinking on their own and can go home, having been told what they already knew. But life isn't like that, and art doesn't have to be like that. Life can be unsatisfying! Life doesn't always have tidy resolutions! Life is not in three acts with plot points taken directly from a "how to write Hollywood screenplays" textbook.
As Chocolate Lady points out, the movie does have Biblical allusions -- and not just to the book of Job either! The movie is literally packed with Biblical allusions. I've heard people say the movie is just this guy getting dumped on, but it's so much more than that. It's one of the few movies out there that has its eyes wide open, that is asking questions -- big questions -- about God and life and the universe. And it does so in a highly entertaining way. I mean, good Lord, what more do audiences need? A happy ending?
Most new movies (including the four other nominees) are really recapitulations of old movies. It's amazing to see something NEW up there on the screen. That, to me, is what A Serious Man represents.
End of rant. |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 03/02/2010 : 06:43:10
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Here, here! And that's what makes it a far better candidate for Best Picture than Avatar!
(Too bad it won't win.)
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/02/2010 : 11:05:55
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quote:
Originally posted by ChocolateLady
Here, here! And that's what makes it a far better candidate for Best Picture than Avatar!
Seeing as you refuse to see Avatar, you're not really in the best position to judge! I don't want it to win either, but I'd rather it won than this. |
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Wheelz
"FWFR%u2019ing like it%u2019s 1999"
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Posted - 03/02/2010 : 13:11:39
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quote:
Originally posted by ChocolateLady
Ever read the book of Job, my friend?
Now do you get it?
quote:
Originally posted by Joe Blevins
As Chocolate Lady points out, the movie does have Biblical allusions -- and not just to the book of Job either! The movie is literally packed with Biblical allusions. I've heard people say the movie is just this guy getting dumped on, but it's so much more than that. It's one of the few movies out there that has its eyes wide open, that is asking questions -- big questions -- about God and life and the universe. And it does so in a highly entertaining way. I mean, good Lord, what more do audiences need? A happy ending?
By no means am I a biblical scholar, but of course I've heard of Job. I've now gone and learned a bit more about it, and as far as I understand it's essentially about... a guy who keeps getting dumped on. I can see that the film does echo the bible story throughout, and (spoilers to follow, I'm no longer going to bother with the inviso-text) I understand better what the tornado represents. And given more time to think about it, I recognize the parallel between Larry's decision to give in and change the grade and his final indignity regarding the medical results.
I'll give you also that my previous complaint about a lack of "plot resolution" was poorly made. (I had a short time to type up my thoughts about all 5 films and wanted to get a post in here.) I've seen enough Coen films to realize that they do not necessarily cater to audience expectations, and yes, that is a good thing. And, no, I certainly don't need a happy ending. I suppose I could have better stated that, even after the concessions I've made above, I wish the movie had had more to say. It's definitely challenging, more nuanced than I first realized, and worthy if spirited debate for sure. When all is said and done, though, it just did not speak to me.
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 03/03/2010 : 01:29:05
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I hope I didn't come across as too pushy in defending A Serious Man. It's partially out of a long-building frustration. Each year, if I'm lucky there is at least one movie that absolutely captures my mindset or focuses on issues that interest me or are important to me. In 2009, that movie was A Serious Man, and on Saturday I had to sit in an audience of people loudly denigrating it. The audience reaction to the movie has been disheartening for me, not just at this screening either. I've defended this movie to people before, and I'm starting to grow weary.
But, anyway, I hope A Serious Man slowly builds a cult following in the years to come because I think it's an important and worthwhile film.
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Edited by - Joe Blevins on 03/03/2010 02:36:56 |
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 03/03/2010 : 01:51:36
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Two More Small Observations About the Day
1. There was a dude in the row behind me who was a dead ringer for Toby from the US version of The Office, right down to the voice and mannerisms. Eerie.
2. I appreciate that AMC was giving us a free large popcorn (with refills), but there's something I have to mention. AMC, there's no easy way to say this: your popcorn is terrible. It's way, way too salty. I think you're just warming up pre-made popcorn. It's terrible. I could barely get through 1/4th of a bag. |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/03/2010 : 03:27:12
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| Presumably they want you to get a lot of non-free drinks. |
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Next project: 10 Best Picture nominees, 2 weekends
