four down, one to go
So far, I’ve seen four out of five of the best picture nominees. I know, I know, the Oscars are so over. But this is about setting the record straight.
The only best picture movie I haven’t seen is Steven Spielberg’s ‘Munich.’ Now, I’m not trying to be biased here, but I have a hunch that if it’s a Speilberg movie I probably wouldn’t pick it for Best Picture anyway.
Of the rest of the four movies, ‘Bokeback Mountain’ was most predicted to win the prize. When I saw it, I certainly appreciated that it was tackling something taboo that, amazingly, hadn’t really been done with a big budget, big-name director, etc. I mean it certainly wasn’t shocking in and of itself, but in the landscape of Hollywood, it pushed the envelope. But I didn’t leave the theater truly believing the love affair. I think Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal tried their best, but the movie could have been better cast. But, I was willing to go along with it winning since it had snatched up so many other awards.
The first of all the best picture nominees that I saw was ‘Good Night and Good Luck.’ This was one of those movies that I don’t think ever wanted to be best picture. It wanted to tell a very important story in a very beautiful, stylized manner. And that’s what it did. End of story.
Following the Oscars, when Jack Nicholson rocked oscar pools across the country by answering ‘Crash,’ I decided it was time to see the movie. This is the only one of the four that I watched on DVD. I am usually a fan of movies that are set in L.A. (Magnolia, L.A. Story, Grand Canyon). I am also a fan of the movies where the plot gets all tangled up and people’s lives intersect in strange ways (Magnolia, Grand Canyon, 21 Grams, etc.), so ‘Crash’ had potential.
But in the end, all of its threads were so contrived that you eventually started to figure out what was going to happen and where things were going to come together. I don’t usually mind if a movie is overacted if its trying to make a point, but I don’t want a movie to try to hit me over the head until I get it. There were moments that were suspenseful, that made you suck in your breath or wonder what was going to happen next. I give it that, but I come back to the missing feeling that I had watched something great.
At any rate at least I know I wouldn’t have picked it anyway, if I’d seen it before the Oscars. Unlike my stupid choice of ‘The Aviator’ over ‘Million Dollar Baby’ the previous year. I still haven’t even seen ‘The Aviator.’
‘Capote.’ I have been a fan of Philip Seymour Hoffman since ‘Magnolia.’ I loved watching him as the sensitive nurse. After that I rented ‘Flawless,’ and fell in love with his drag queen character opposite Robert DeNiro. He’s simply just been great in every single movie, no matter how bad or good the movie itself was. I knew I would enjoy ‘Capote’ for the fact that he was in it (as well as the fabulous Catherine Keener). I knew that he would deserve the best actor oscar, too. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it had what the other movies in the best picture category were missing. The other movies failed to transport you to another time and place, failed to draw you in, and the actors failed to make you forget who they really were.
You have to see ‘Capote’ if you have any good taste at all, unlike the Academy.
daily life | sighclub March 20, 2006
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By Robin, March 20, 2006 @ 8:33 pm
well done!! bravo!! i’ve only seen brokeback and crash, but you’ve put into words what i couldn’t about both. especially crash. i loved one of the last scenes in brokeback, where jack is sleeping on his feet, ennis comes and gives him an embrace, and i wished for more of the emotional essence of that moment.
By Gunnella, March 22, 2006 @ 8:59 am
I sooo, have to catch up! Still haven’t caught any of them :-/