Best picture thoughts

I figured I should at least post my thoughts on the best picture nominees:


“Slumdog Millionaire”: There is a reason that this likely will win best picture. Few if any films this year managed to make this many disparate elements work and work well together. From the music to cinematography to the acting to the wonderfully edited montages, Danny Boyle’s film weaves some wonderful movie magic, mixing the joy and the sadness, triumph and tragedy. It might not be the year’s best film, but of the best picture nominees, it is the one I’ll be rooting for. A

“Frost Nixon”: Why would a reviewer make the point of saying someone's *not* a genius? Do you especially think I'm *not* a genius? You didn't even have to think about it, did you? – “The Royal Tenenbaums
Is it possible for someone to be criticized so much for being overrated that he actually becomes underrated? It seems to have happened with Ron Howard after his Oscar win, with most of the criticism being that he is not a genius, that he has no distinctive style, a glorified director for hire.

And it might all be true, but that doesn’t change the fact that the guy knows movies and knows how to make them. Give him good material and he’ll make a good movie. Give him great material and you’ll get “Frost/Nixon,” which might have surpassed “Apollo 13” as his best film. The give and take, the mental and verbal sparring is fascinating. And Langella and Sheen are both wonderful as the title characters. A

“Milk”: One of the most amazing parts Gus Van Sant’s “Milk” is how it manages to skirt some of your typical biopic traps that tend to make the interesting conventional. Part of the reason is it is about the birth of a movement as much sometimes as it is the life of a man. It captures the passion and determination, the exhilaration and disappointment. And Penn is rarely less than riveting as the man all of this is filtered through. The one real disappointment is that most of the other members, with the possible exception of Emile Hirsch’ Cleve Jones, all seem rather two-dimensional. Still, as biopics go, this is one of the better ones. A-

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”: “Benjamin Button” is one of those films that almost demands to be seen on the big screen. The visuals are so lush, so beautiful that it is tough not to be swept up in the storytelling. And get swept up I did. The problem came afterward, when I actually thought about the film. There is just not that much there. The characters aren’t all that compelling, the framing story adds little and I just got the feeling they could have done more with the central premise than they did. Still, I have to give major credit to David Fincher and the technical crew. They made the film into a storytelling experience. B+

“The Reader”: There is a reason that this was an unexpected Oscar nominee: it is simply not as good as the others. It flits around touching on a ton of subjects but thoroughly examining none, giving the Reader’s Digest version of arguments just to say that they were made. There is one aspect that is not overrated, though: Kate Winslet’s performance. She is simply amazing. Her performance here is reason alone to see the movie, to marvel at the intensity and nuance. It’s almost enough to make you forget the rest of the film was a muddled, middling mess. B- (mostly for Winslet)

Oh, and I'm rooting for Rourke, Winslet, Ledger and Tomei in the acting categories, although Penn, Jenkins, Langella, Leo and Hathaway also turned in outstanding performances in the leading categories.