Some More 2009 Movies from July

Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is the best movie of 2009 so far. Easily. This movie is intense and moving and, well, just plain awesome. It's a movie about a bomb-defusing squad in Iraq (I know films about the Middle East are not popular with the USAmerican public, but there have been a couple of really good ones lately.) Bigelow's film is the most suspenseful movie I've seen in years, though. The bomb sequences are intense and crazy, and I found myself not breathing for pretty much the film's entire running time. At two points in the picture my jaw dropped at the The Hurt Locker's sheer audacity. This movie is incredible. Go see it. Unequivocally recommended.

Brüno is, as it turns out, a lot like Borat. Except that it doesn't work as well. The film, in fact, doesn't really work at all. Still, Brüno is a really funny movie and has some cracking good jokes. I laughed pretty much all the way through it. And I think the film is occasionally clever, too. It is certainly very clear about its stance on homophobia—Brüno is very scary in this respect, too: it shows just how unsafe it is to be queer in the mid-west United States. But Brüno also left me feeling empty. Its message isn't that interesting, and star Cohen and director Charles don't really uncover anything we didn't already know about middle America. I am not sure any of us realized how racist many people in the U.S. are, but we all know how homophobic everyone is, don't we?

At any rate, Brüno is missing something. Perhaps that something is likable characters, or perhaps that something is a real narrative for which one can root. But whatever it is, Brüno doesn't have it.

I thought Todd Phillips' The Hangover was pretty funny. I also thought it was homophobic and racist. But, then, I am surprised when various cultural products are not homophobic and/or racist.

The Hangover is also completely absurd. The stars of the film are less interesting than, say, the stars of Wedding Crashers or Dan in Real Life, but the situations in The Hangover are still pretty funny. Plus it's about Las Vegas. And, as you all know, I love me some Vegas.

The Nominees: Part IV of VIII

THE PRESTIGE

2 Nominations:

Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister (Batman Begins)

Best Art Direction: Nathan Crowley, Julie Ochipinti

Director: Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, Insomnia, Memento)
Cast: Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johanssen, Rebecca Hall, Piper Perabo, Andy Serkis, David Bowie (!), Samantha Mahurin, Roger Rees, Edward Hibbert, Ricky Jay

One of the two "magician movies" that graced theatres this summer, this film seemed to get forgotten, since it was released a few weeks after the other "magician movie" of the summer, The Illusionist. The superior script, filmmaking, acting, etc. of The Prestige does not seem to have been lost on the Academy, who remembered it well on nomination morning. The Academy clearly likes Christopher Nolan's work. Pfister's surprise nomination last year means that they are paying attention to Nolan's movies (which are all thrillers—a genre traditionally overlooked by Oscar). As well they should be. Nolan's movies are the best the high-gloss thriller genre has to offer and his Batman Begins is easily the best comic book movie I've seen in years. We should note that The Prestige was one of two movies this year that starred both Scarlett Johanssen and Hugh Jackman (the abominable Scoop was the other). The Academy continues to overlook Johanssen (not that her work was particularly good in this film. The movie also boasts yet another excellent supporting performance by Michael Caine. He just keeps cranking them out (he was also great in Children of Men).
Will Win: N/A
Might Also Win: Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction
My Rating: #23 out of 69

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS

2 Nominations:

Best Sound Mixing

Best Sound Editing

Director: Clint Eastwood (Letters from Iwo Jima, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, The Bridges of Madison County, Unforgiven)
Cast: Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach, Jesse Bradford, John Benjamin Hickey, Melanie Lynskey, Barry Pepper, Jamie Bell, Paul Walker, Joseph Cross

One of two Clint Eastwood films. It's really part two of a pair, though the films are only related by subject matter; the content hardly links at all. This was the first of the films out of the gates and was mostly crucified by critics, but expected to do well with the Academy. The Academy was cold on the movie for some reason (there are myriad explanations for this). At any rate, Warner Bros., seeing Hollywood's cold reception of Flags, decided to bring out Letters from Iwo Jima in December (it was originally scheduled for 2007). This explains two things: the (ever-so-slight) resurgence in love for Flags and the very limited amount of love for Letters which seems to be almost universally admired, though mostly ignored by the Academy. It just came out too late to hit the jackpot. This is all Warner's fault, of course. (I blame them for lots of things. See: The Departed.) I, for one—I am well aware of my minority status on this one—am delighted that there was at least a small amount of love shown for this earlier Eastwood film, which I liked quite a bit when I saw it. But then, I'm a sucker for father/son narratives...
Will Win: N/A
Might Also Win: N/A
My Rating: #8 out of 69

CARS

2 Nominations:

Best Original Song: "Our Town" performed by James Taylor and written by Randy Newman ("If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc., "A Fool in Love" from Meet the Parents, "When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2, "That'll Do" from Babe: Pig in the City, "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story, "Make Up Your Mind" from The Paper, "I Love to See You Smile" from Parenthood, "One More Hour" from Ragtime)

Best Animated Feature Film

Director: John Lasseter (Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Toy Story)
Cast: Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Keaton, Jenifer Lewis, Cheech Marin, Jeremy Piven, John Ratzenberger

Geez. Look at all those previous nominations for Randy Newman. And that's just in the Original Song category. He could win again, of course, but I think it unlikely. Cars is in a much-loved lineup of Pixar films, and though it is not as widely loved as its predecessors—Toy Story and its sequel, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Monsters, Inc., you get the drift—I think it could win simply on the basis of these past successes. However, I don't think it will. I think most everyone saw this film, thought it slightly sub-par, and will give the big trophy to the other huge money-making animated film from 2006.
Will Win: N/A
Might Also Win: Best Original Song, Best Animated Feature
My Rating: #37 out of 69

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

1 Nomination:

Best Original Song: "I Need to Wake Up" written and performed by Melissa Etheridge

Director: Davis Guggenheim (Gossip)
Cast: Al Gore

I'm putting this film next because, although I don't include documentaries in my awards numbers, it obviously does have more than one nomination. It is also nominated (and will probably win) in the Best Documentary Feature category. I think, in fact, that it will take home both of the trophies it's nominated for. Plus the song is a really cool anthem by a hugely popular artist.
Will Win: Best Original Song (& Best Documentary Feature)
Might Also Win: N/A
My Rating: Unranked: I don't rank the documentaries I see. It doesn't seem fair.

BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN

1 Nomination:

Best Adapted Screenplay: Sacha Baron Cohen, Peter Baynham, Anthony Hines, Dan Mazer, Todd Phillips

Director: Larry Charles
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Davitian, Pamela Anderson, Luenell Campbell

This film's nomination is very exciting, I think. The Academy, it seems to say, is not as stuffy as you might think. Sacha Baron Cohen probably just missed out on a Best Actor nomination, as well. (Hey, if Roberto Benigni can fit in this category—Benigni even took home a statue—so can Cohen.) Some have wondered why this film is an "adapted" screenplay and not considered in the "original" category. Screenplays that are based around characters who were not invented for a specific film, but were invented for a previous film or some other medium are usually considered "adapted". This is an odd thing for the Academy that they seem to decide both ways. It always seems arbitrary to me. For instance: in 2005, the brilliant script for Before Sunset, which told the story of characters invented for the film Before Sunrise was nominated in the "adapted" category. And yet the year before (2004), Denys Arcand's script for The Barbarian Invasions, which is clearly based on characters from his earlier film The Decline of the American Empire was nominated as "original". It's possible that they evaluate such things on a case-by-case basis. I'm not sure.
Will Win: N/A
Might Also Win: Best Adapted Screenplay (dark horse)
My Rating: #26 out of 69

More soon. I'm playing catch-up...

Breaking News from Colorado Springs

So I get into Colorado Springs on Thursday Morning and the roads are closed. I also had to pick up my sister from the same airport at 11:00p, and since I couldn't get to the house (30 minutes away from the airport) because of the closed roads, I ended up stranded in Colorado Springs (quite similar to Tallahassee in its own way) for twelve hours.
So I went to the movies. Of course, they only have a giant multiplex here with crapola Hollywood fare. I refuse to see The Nativity Story, and I had already seen Happyness, Eragon and Apocalypto, so I bought myself a ticket to Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. I found it both imaginative and stupid. I have to say that i thought it was one of the funniest things I'd seen in a long time. It is unmistakeably American in its sensibilities and its humor (nude men wrestling is really funny to us). But for some reason I found the scatological laughs to be freshly conceptualized and well done. It's tasteless and silly and ridiculous. It's also clever, pointed and rather scathing toward the American heartland. I've said before that I think Americans are sort of an easy target, and making fun of people who still support George W. Bush is the simplest thing in the world and nothing new under the sun, but Borat points its lens at the belief systems of these people and their beliefs come off not only as "dumb back-woods American" beliefs, but also as horrifyingly simple-minded. What Borat does successfully is paint a picture of a nation that could have voted for George W. Bush. The people in this movie are the people who kept this man in office for this long. And when you come down to it, while Borat is probably one of the funniest movies I've seen all year, it's also a rather shocking document of this country.