As the Awards Season continues to build toward the big night, let's continue on with my humble thoughts on Oscar contenders in some of the major categories.
Best Actor is a tough category for me to gauge, since the probable winner (if the preliminary awards are any indication), Phillip Seymour Hoffman, is from a movie I haven't yet seen, Capote. I also have not seen this year's biggest surprise nomination- Terrance Howard in Hustle and Flow. That being said, I did enjoy all of the nominated performances I did actually witness. David Strathrairn was brilliant in portraying Edward R. Murrow's righteous indignation bubbling under the surface of smooth professionalism. Joaquin Phoenix beautifully captured the passion and instability of a young rocker (and Johnny Cash
was a rocker, no matter what genre you classify his music into). My favorite male performance this year, however, was Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain. Mr. Ledger communicated Enis's conflicted soul with unbelievable stillness and reticence. In many ways, the movie's success as a story hinged on the audience's sympathy toward Enis, and Mr. Ledger invited that sympathy so subtly that you probably won't even notice it until you're sobbing into your popcorn napkins.
The big award of the night is, of course, the Best Picture category. This category can bring a beautiful small film to the masses- would you have heard of The English Patient, otherwise? And it can bring artistic legitimacy to the biggest of blockbusters, like Titanic and Return of the King. This year, it will certainly be the former, since the combined five nominees have grossed less than $200 million combined. For my money, Good Night, and Good Luck was too dispassionate and measured to become a true classic. Munich suffered too greatly from the overhandedness discussed in my last post to make it to the podium at the end of the night. Again, I didn't see Capote, but my understanding is that the movie is more amazing due to the amazing portrayal of the title character than about the story. I loved Crash. It was an ambitious, heartfelt, thought provoking film that will certainly live in my DVD collection, but it wasn't even nominated for Best Picture at the Globes. Maybe it's too touchy feely for the Hollywood types, but it's up there for me. Even though I loved Crash, I think one film this year is even more deserving of the top prize next weekend. That is, of course, Brokeback Mountain. Everything in this film was executed flawlessly. From the locations, to the casting, to the acting, to the script to the costumes. Perfectly done. This is a small movie that has something to say (about forbidden love, not at all about homosexuality, incidentally), and it says it eloquently.
Next week I'll give my picks (without so much yapping) for the minor categories for those of you playing along at home...
So it's February, which sucks for new movies, but at least we have the movie geek's equivalent of the playoffs: the Oscar Races. Here's some of my thoughts on the key races:
Best Director: This year the Best Director race exactly mirrors the Best Picture race. This makes sense to me: if the director is ultimately responsible for the creative aspects of the film, the best film is an indication of who the best director is. So far, I've seen four of the five nominees for these categories (still looking forward to
Capote). Mr. Clooney's accomplishment with
Good Night, and Good Luck was impressive, especially for someone so relatively inexperienced in directing. He could be the next Redford, but the film was too flawed to merit a Best Director statue (more on that later). Another Feature Directing rookie was Paul Haggis for
Crash. While this film was brilliant in many ways, the scenes were sometimes played a little too sentimentally for Oscar voters. Again, I haven't seen
Capote, but Bennett Miller hasn't won very many preliminary awards, so his chances are looking slim. In my opinion, Mr. Speilburg is quite deserving of a Best Director Oscar for his work in
Munich. The film's steady pace and powerfully restrained performances make up for the films few fumbles (for instance, Mr. Speilburg's speciallity: overhanded, too obvious endings), but this year there is one Director to rule them all: Ang Lee. In Brokeback Mountain, Mr. Lee's amazing balance of emotion and beauty, of pain and love, of conflict and serenity is where this movie can be most appreciated. This material in another director's hands might have ended up cheesy or over the top. But Mr. Lee reins the picture in when necessary and lets it soar when it can. I think this incredible sense of balance will win him his first Oscar.
Best Actress: This category is always tough for me to judge. Because of the apparent lack of public interest in movies with female leads (that's right, I blame the public for this), most of the Best Actress Nominees this year and historically are from limited-release arthouse-type flicks. Which don't come to Tampa. So I've only seen one of the nominated films:
Walk the Line. Lucky for me, this movie seems to feature the major frontrunner. Reese Witherspoon was brilliant as June Carter Cash (see previous post), and if early awards and buzz says anything, it's that the other lovely ladies nominated in this category won't match up.
Next week: My thoughts on the Best Actor and Best Picture...
For the Love of a Woman
Who would be crazy enough to compare Surrealism with Country and Western music? Well, me, for one. Okay, it's not exactly those two art forms that I'd like to consider, but arguably the foremost figures in those respective fields.
This is a story about a man who's genius comes naturally to him. Sure, he has to put forth effort to get started, but once he does, his unique style becomes the hallmark of his art form. A story about a man who, left to his own devices, would spiral out of control- losing his art, his family, and his life. But in this story, the man is saved from this descent by one thing, and one thing only- the unlikely love of a strong woman. I'm talking here about Salvador Dali.
In his book,
The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, Dali himself tells his story with his trademark wit, more than a dose of self-importance, but with surprising candor. As I see it, the overarching theme of the story is that a man on his own is unreliable and likely to self-destruct. Salvador continually fights and loses ground with madness. The only thing that can save him is the stabilizing force of a strong, intelligent woman, in this case his friend's wife Gala.
This strikes me as quite a progressive idea in his time- that man's worth can be tied up in his relationship with a woman. The reverse- the woman dependent on a man- has long been portrayed in literature from Snow White to Gone With the Wind. This interesting take on gender is also portrayed in one of this year's sweetest movies, Walk the Line.
In the film, Johnny Cash is portrayed convincingly by Joaquin Phoenix as an effortless genius, who's art and life is in danger- not from madness- from drinking and drugs. Johnny shows every sign that on his own, he'd succumb to his weaknesses. But he knows that he can be saved by the love of the pure good, strong June Carter (played with elegant radiance by Reese Witherspoon).
In the end of both stories, the men find their reason to live. They find their power to overcome, their salvation, in their amazing wives. I think some of us can relate : )
Best Actor is a tough category for me to gauge, since the probable winner (if the preliminary awards are any indication), Phillip Seymour Hoffman, is from a movie I haven't yet seen, Capote. I also have not seen this year's biggest surprise nomination- Terrance Howard in Hustle and Flow. That being said, I did enjoy all of the nominated performances I did actually witness. David Strathrairn was brilliant in portraying Edward R. Murrow's righteous indignation bubbling under the surface of smooth professionalism. Joaquin Phoenix beautifully captured the passion and instability of a young rocker (and Johnny Cash was a rocker, no matter what genre you classify his music into). My favorite male performance this year, however, was Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain. Mr. Ledger communicated Enis's conflicted soul with unbelievable stillness and reticence. In many ways, the movie's success as a story hinged on the audience's sympathy toward Enis, and Mr. Ledger invited that sympathy so subtly that you probably won't even notice it until you're sobbing into your popcorn napkins.
The big award of the night is, of course, the Best Picture category. This category can bring a beautiful small film to the masses- would you have heard of The English Patient, otherwise? And it can bring artistic legitimacy to the biggest of blockbusters, like Titanic and Return of the King. This year, it will certainly be the former, since the combined five nominees have grossed less than $200 million combined. For my money, Good Night, and Good Luck was too dispassionate and measured to become a true classic. Munich suffered too greatly from the overhandedness discussed in my last post to make it to the podium at the end of the night. Again, I didn't see Capote, but my understanding is that the movie is more amazing due to the amazing portrayal of the title character than about the story. I loved Crash. It was an ambitious, heartfelt, thought provoking film that will certainly live in my DVD collection, but it wasn't even nominated for Best Picture at the Globes. Maybe it's too touchy feely for the Hollywood types, but it's up there for me. Even though I loved Crash, I think one film this year is even more deserving of the top prize next weekend. That is, of course, Brokeback Mountain. Everything in this film was executed flawlessly. From the locations, to the casting, to the acting, to the script to the costumes. Perfectly done. This is a small movie that has something to say (about forbidden love, not at all about homosexuality, incidentally), and it says it eloquently.
