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Joe Blevins 
"Don't I look handsome?"
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 Posted - 02/20/2011 : 05:36:14
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Hello, all.
It's that time of year again! I just survived Day 1 of the AMC Theater chain's annual Best Picture Showcase, a marathon of all the movies nominated for Best Picture. This year (as last) I headed out to the AMC South Barrington, about half an hour away from home. The weather generally cooperated and the traffic wasn't too terrible. It was a drag having to scrape the ice off my windows at the end of the day, but that was the only major setback. The turnout was very good this year, and the audience was well-behaved and respectful (UNLIKE last year). I didn't win anything this time around, but then again, I didn't study up on my Oscar trivia. I'd been meaning to, but never got around to it. One great change this year is that they now give each attendee $10 credit at the concession stand, rather than limiting you to just popcorn. (I didn't care for AMC's version of popcorn and much preferred the Sno-Caps and pretzel I chose instead.) Another great change was shortening the breaks between movies. The first year I did this, the day seemed to stretch on forever.
Anyway, I thought I'd walk you through the schedule for Day 1.
11:00am TOY STORY 3 - What needs to be said at this point? I enjoyed this just as much the second time as I did the first. AMC showed this in 2D instead of 3D, but I don't see that the film suffered in any noticeable way. In fact, it was a great opportunity to appreciate the film's gorgeous color scheme without the 3D glasses. Just a beautifully crafted film, and as funny/touching/exciting/suspenseful/involving as anything on the schedule this day. GRADE: A
1:00pm 127 HOURS - If you've seen the trailers or read any of the reviews, this film is exactly what you think it is. In its use of dreams, delusions, and flashbacks to break up what could be a visually-monotonous story, it reminded me a bit of Johnny Got His Gun... only much, much more optimistic. The film doesn't skimp on the unpleasant details, but it's not a gorefest by any means. James Franco gives an admirably nuanced, non-hammy performance as the unfortunate hiker Aron Ralston, and this film has perhaps permanently changed the way I think of Scooby-Doo. Still, I doubt I'll ever watch this again. GRADE: B
3:00pm THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT - I don't have much to say about this one. It's a pleasant, entertaining little film -- well-acted and with some nicely-observed dialogue scenes. To me, Julianne Moore is the acting standout, though Annette Bening has been the one getting the awards and nominations. I used the word "slight" last year to describe An Education, and I'm going to have to use it again for this movie. I mean, it was nice and everything but I just kind of shrugged when it was over. I didn't like how the film essentially turns Mark Ruffalo's character into the heavy/scapegoat in the later stages and gives him no opportunities to redeem himself. That seemed kind of unfair, given that this guy was minding his own business at the beginning of the movie and that the Bening/Moore family was clearly having its own problems BEFORE Ruffalo got roped into it. It could be argued that this family unit had a lot of unresolved issues and bubbling tensions and that the various intra-familial conflicts were EVENTUALLY going to come to the surface one way or another. Ruffalo just happened to be the catalyst. Another one I'll never revisit, though it wasn't bad by any means. GRADE: B-
5:45pm TRUE GRIT - Before today, I'd probably have named True Grit as my favorite movie of 2010. And after today, it still is. I think I liked it even more the second time, when I was more accustomed to Jeff Bridges' gravelly, mush-mouthed speech. I don't know if I wrote about here, but I went on kind of a True Grit kick a few months back. In preparation for this new film, I read Charles Portis' excellent novel and watched the very fine original film version. I even tracked down the MAD Magazine parody of that first film, entitled "True Fat." This new Grit film is certainly one I'll revisit in years to come. GRADE: A
7:45pm THE FIGHTER - The last film of the day, and it's a tough slot because by then I'm all movied-out. But even in my exhausted, weary condition, I could recognize that The Fighter is an excellent addition to the genre of climb-from-despair-to-victory sports films. If you tend to like boxing movies, you've probably already seen and loved The Fighter. It made an interesting contrast with True Grit. The Coens are old-school craftsmen, and there's a kind of elegant formality to their filmmaking. David O. Russell is much more rough and tumble. There's a lot of shaky cam here, and the camera tends to get right up in the characters' faces, even when (or especially when) it's an uncomfortable or tense moment. Christian Bale has the showboat role here and runs with it, but Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams do fine work as well. And I'll say this: the casting is excellent, especially for Bale and Wahlberg's many sisters -- the best gaggle of their kind since Punch Drunk Love. GRADE: B+, BUT PROBABLY AN A- IF IT HAD PLAYED EARLIER IN THE DAY
NEXT WEEK: Five more films and then the glorious ceremony itself.
BONUS: TEN LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE MOVIES ON DAY ONE
1. Family trumps pretty much everything.
2. It's both happy and sad when kids go off to college.
3. You can't make it through life on your own. Sooner or later, you're going to need some help.
4. Adolescence is a tumultuous time which marks the transition from childhood to adulthood.
5. A grudge is awfully heavy thing to carry.
6. When someone offers to shake hands, you should (generally) accept. To deny someone a handshake is a major insult.
7. If you fall in a hole, you're probably going to lose an arm.
8. Honesty actually is the best policy.
9. Those who rely too heavily on drugs and alcohol hurt not only themselves but those around them.
10. Never give up.
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Wheelz 
"FWFR%u2019ing like it%u2019s 1999"
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Posted - 02/21/2011 : 14:32:41
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I was over at Yorktown doing the same thing on Saturday. The biggest difference is that I had seen none of these films already, so I was truly a clean slate.
I don't have a lot of time to offer my opinions on every film here, but for the most part I agree with Joe's assessments of the first four, almost word-for-word. I didn't have quite as high an opinion of The Fighter, which I've described over in that film's thread.
I absolutely love doing this every year, and I'm looking forward to next Saturday!! |
Edited by - Wheelz on 03/02/2011 15:18:36 |
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 02/27/2011 : 07:42:07
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I wanted to write about Day 2 while it was still fresh in my memory. Keep in mind that these opinions are going to be scattershot, gut-level reactions rather than carefully-considered, fully-thought-out reviews.
And with that, we proceed.
11:00am WINTER'S BONE In a less-gentle time, this would have been called hicksploitation -- think Erskine Caldwell, only minus the sex and updated to the present day. But this isn't grindhouse hicksplotation. It's tasteful, film-festival-approved, Oscar-nominated hicksploitation. Which means that we're going to see some squirrel-gutting, tooth-spitting, and banjo-soloing, but we're supposed to feel kind of bad about it because, after all, we're all snug and cozy in a movie theater while the poor-but-proud characters on the screen look like they're living in a post-apocalyptic hellhole. I don't really know what to say about Winter's Bone. It's very artfully photographed -- the cinematographer gets incredible mileage out of simple shots of clothes drying on the line or fields full of rusted-out cars. The acting is, I suppose, very fine. All the actors -- whether their characters are good, bad, or indifferent -- are obviously trying to play their roles with a certain level of dignity and avoid "hillbilly" stereotypes. Well, except for the lady who was the "daytime hooker" on My Name Is Earl; she's allowed to go nuts, even chainsawing the hands off a corpse at one point. The movie isn't above using shots of cute kids or cute animals in order to elicit an "awwwww" from viewers. I didn't quite buy any of this. I don't know what's wrong with me that I was unmoved. But by the same token, I was certainly never bored. It's an engrossing story, and I'm guessing the source novel was a real page-turner. Just to be on the safe side, I'll award this a GRADE: B.
1:00pm BLACK SWAN - I thought 2010 was a weak year for film comedy, apart from a few very funny computer-animated films. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place. Black Swan is perhaps best approached as a riotous comedy, a ludicrous parable so over the top, so far beyond the pale that the only proper reaction is to laugh. Someday it may take its place as a new-millennium Rocky Horror, with moviegoers dressing up as the characters and reciting the dialogue in sync with the actors. Don't take any of this to mean that I didn't like the film or didn't think the film was well-done. On the contrary, I enjoyed it quite a bit and think that it contains several stunning performances. FINALLY there is a role for which Natalie Portman's pinched, formal, slightly whiny delivery is perfect. The only thing I really would have changed about Black Swan is its over-reliance on the shaky cam. As uncool as this sounds, I wish Stanley Kubrick would have been around to direct this thing. He would have brought a level of stylistic formality which would have (I think) suited this material very well. And he would have occasionally used a damned tripod! GRADE: a very affectionate B+.
3:10pm INCEPTION - Those of you with longer memories might recall that I said some unkind things about Inception on the Fourum last summer. But when I revisited it today, I wanted to forget about the past and start anew with this film, clearly the fanboys' favorite among the nominees. I am willing to concede that at least some of what I said back then was hogwash. I claimed, for instance, that Inception was "ugly." Maybe I was operating under the delusion that Christopher Nolan's films take place entirely in basements and warehouses. Actually, most of Inception takes place in elegant, tastefully-decorated hotels, and most of the scenes are shot in such a way that they resemble pages from a high-end furniture catalog. (But in my defense, there are some basement and warehouse scenes, too.) During my second viewing, I realized I had slightly underestimated Leonardo DiCaprio's performance. The actor really does convey some of Cobb's longing for his children and unresolved grief and guilt over his late wife. But that, for now, is as far as I'm willing to go in praising Inception. To put it bluntly, this is not Best Picture material. The movie does have some potentially intriguing ideas about exploring the landscape of the mind, especially in the early scenes, but it largely abandons those ideas in favor of chaotic action scenes, long-winded expository dialogue, and gimmickry for its own sake. The film's second half is a noisy, calamitous, headache-inducing drag in which characters are constantly having to shout at each other over the combined din of explosions, gunshots, and Hans Zimmer's booming score. For these reasons (and more, believe me), I can give Inception no higher than a GRADE: C+.
6:45pm THE SOCIAL NETWORK - Coincidentally, the film I found the weakest on the schedule was followed by the one I found the strongest. Each year, there's a film which veers so closely to my particular sense of humor or sphere of interest that I like to pretend it was made especially for me. This time around, perhaps even more so than True Grit, that movie is The Social Network. What can I say? I don't know why I avoided this one in theaters, perhaps because of my ambivalence towards Facebook. This film had a dizzying effect on me -- in a good way! I'm already drawing parallels between it and Fight Club, and there are enough that these two flicks will make a swell double feature someday. I know what film I'll be rooting for during the telecast. In terms of pure fun, its only rival is Toy Story 3. GRADE: an easy A.
9:00pm THE KING'S SPEECH - There is no shame, though, in losing the big prize to The King's Speech. This is very fine stuff indeed. While The Social Network is very much about the world we live in now, The King's Speech could have been made in any year and will probably not age in any noticeable way in the years to come. I just love it when they get the great British thespians together for a historical drama like this. I remember thinking at one point, "Oh, look! It's dear old Derek Jabobi!" The recent news that the film was at least partially filmed on the same site as a gay porn only makes me happier, and I even thought I recognized that great, weird hallway from the "find the fish" scene in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. (Wikipedia confirms it! Battersea power station FTW!) Like The Social Network, The King's Speech has been criticized for not being too terribly concerned with historical accuracy. But I was sufficiently moved by the story, the way it takes a historical event (or rather, several years of historical events) and makes it all personal and human and life-sized that I did not much care about the accuracy issue. GRADE: A-.
And that does it for the Best Picture Showcase. It was a great field of contenders this year, and I don't regret having seen a single of of the ten nominees. As much as I enjoy the BPS, I should say that a marathon is NOT the best way to see a movie. When you see five films in a single day, the details tend to run together. And the last film on the schedule tends to suffer because of audience exhaustion. But I don't get out to the theaters very often, so the BPS is a great way for me to catch up on what I've missed.
P.S. - Wheelz, any further thoughts...? |
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Wheelz
"FWFR%u2019ing like it%u2019s 1999"
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Posted - 03/02/2011 : 14:50:54
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quote:
Originally posted by Joe Blevins
As much as I enjoy the BPS, I should say that a marathon is NOT the best way to see a movie. When you see five films in a single day, the details tend to run together. And the last film on the schedule tends to suffer because of audience exhaustion. But I don't get out to the theaters very often, so the BPS is a great way for me to catch up on what I've missed.
P.S. - Wheelz, any further thoughts...?
I agree somewhat about the effects of seeing five films in a day. The theater's choice of scheduling has a lot to do with that, I think. The first one of these I went to (2008) had this order: Michael Clayton, Atonement, Juno, There Will Be Blood, and No Country For Old Men. I considered this a near-perfect schedule, though my wife confessed to dozing off during There Will Be Blood. However, everybody woke up for No Country, the ideal closer.
The next year, they decided to end with Frost/Nixon, which, while a fine film, is rather light on murders and car chases. By rights I should have been fascinated, but I was struggling to stay focused by then.
Last year, expanded to two weeks, the closers were District 9 and Inglorious Basterds, which worked out well. On the other hand, after seeing A Serious Man, Precious, and The Hurt Locker all in a row, I was ready to take a baseball bat to my own head. They could have mixed those up a little better, I think. That seemed like a looong day!
So this time around, being the last film of the day probably had something to do with my generally negative reaction to The Fighter. After sitting there all day, I think I resented having to now spend time with all these characters that I just didn't like. I might have appreciated the film's considerable merits more if I'd come into it fresh.
Which brings us to this past Saturday. I found it curious that the final three films were the longest of the ten. The entire day ran nearly two hours longer than the previous week. On top of that, the final two pictures were the "talkiest" of the bunch. I feared another Frost/Nixon situation. But I needn't have worried. These films were so good I was awake and entertained all day long. (I can't say the same for the couple sitting behind me, who started going all "Mystery Science Theater" on The King's Speech, to the point that I had to turn around and shush them -- I hate doing that, but at least they did shut up.)
As for the films themselves, I thought Winter's Bone was fascinating. This film created such a sense of place that I was thoroughy absorbed into the lives of the characters -- the odd combination of pride, desperation, and acceptance of their lot. It was a different world to most of us, made absolutely real on film. Jennifer Lawrence earned that nomination, even if there was no chance she'd win.
Black Swan, you pretty much nailed it. "Over the top" doesn't even begin to describe it. But you know what? It sucked me in. By the time I realized the extent to which reality was being bent, the film already had me, and I just went along for the ride. And what a ride it was!
Suffice it to say I liked Inception more than you did. It's a thoroughly outlandish premise, of course, but the filmmakers don't even bother trying to defend said premise; it is what it is, and you either buy in or you don't. I bought in, and once I did, I enjoyed myself. The film flawlessly abides by its own rules, and does so with style and excitement. I will agree that it's pretty much out of place on a Best Picture nominee list. The characters are thin and it's nowhere near as deep and mind-blowing as the fanboys would have you believe. But so what? It was great fun and visually outstanding. I liked it a lot. And it served as a palate-cleanser of sorts amid all of the day's heavy drama.
On the other hand, we're right in synch on The Social Network. Loved it. If I had an Academy vote, this would have gotten it (just edging out True Grit, followed closely by The King's Speech). Not much I can add to your assessment.
Even though I placed it third in a tight race, The King's Speech was a deserving winner. It had everything the Oscars love, including a historical backdrop and British people giving powerful heartfelt performances. It was also mesmerizingly good, completely transporting me (much like Winter's Bone, come to think of it) to a world I knew nothing about.
So there you have it. An ecxellent collection of films, in my opinion, and I look forward to next year's Showcase!
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Edited by - Wheelz on 03/02/2011 15:27:07 |
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Best Picture Showcase 2011
