4. Babel: So, unlike The Queen, I don't think its absurd that this was nominated for Best Picture. Once again, this movie was pretty mixed in my mind. Before I get to that, I'm concerned about the growing trend of movies like this. After Crash, the path has been paved for nonsensical, noncontiguous social commentary movies, that just don't make sense as movies. Just because someone can come up with three interesting stories doesn't mean you can combine them into one movie.
So, first, the good. I thought the acting was generally really fantastic. Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Adriana Barazza and "the girl who played the deaf/mute Japanese volleyball player" were all really really great. Also excellent were a number of really powerful and moving scenes. For example, the son turning himself into the police, Brad Pitt trying to pay the guy who helped with this wife, Brad Pitt on the phone with his kids, and a few others were exceptionally well done scenes.
However, the movie suffered from three big problems. The first is what I'll will now call the "Crash/Babel Problem" which shall heretofore be defined as "having a bunch of nonsequitor plot lines with no meaningful relation to each other." Babel took this problem to a whole new level from Crash. The second problem was that the stories also not only had no unifying point but no real point at all. Basically the only underlying current of the movie (as far as I could tell) was that random stuff happens. Third, the movie was too long. Not only that, it felt WAAAAY too long. The last hour moved decently, but the first hour and a quarter was too much nothing. There's only so much not seeing Brad Pitt helped, seeing Japanese girl be frustrated etc... that I really need to buy the storyline.
Overall, good movie, MAYBE good enough to be nominated for best picture in some years. But outside of the acting, the movie probably shouldn't have been nominated.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Academy Awards: Best Picture Thoughts (1)
So the five films nominated for best picture this year are The Departed, Babel, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen, and Letters from Iwo Jima. I have just today finished seeing all five, having seen Babel and Iwo Jima in the last week. Although I certainly had views before seeing all the movies, I now have pretty confident feelings about the movies. Before I get to my own opinions on the five movies, I want to discuss some movies that weren't nominated.
First, I was extraordinarily pleased that Dreamgirls was not nominated for Best Picture. I had vowed that if it had won I would boycott watching the Oscars for three years, and indeed it now won't. I would have enjoyed explaining why this movie didn't deserve to win but I'm happy to say I don't need that opportunity.
Second, there are several movies I think should have been up there that weren't. The number one movie in this respect was Thank You For Smoking, a really really great movie. This picture got hugely snubbed in the Oscars (should have at minimum received something for the screenplay). Other movies that potentially deserved a best picture nod or at least consideration are An Inconvenient Truth, The Prestige, Casino Royale, The Illusionist, Inside Man, and maybe Children of Men. Although these movies were not the Best Picture, I think all of them are better than certainly two of the nominees.
My own personal rankings of the five movies are as follows, with a short explanation for each to follow.
1. Little Miss Sunshine
T2. The Departed/Letters from Iwo Jima (slight edge to Departed probably)
4. Babel
5. The Queen
5. The Queen: Even though I really don't think this film had any business being so acclaimed and nominated, it had a couple of things going for it. Primarily, the story itself was excellent and an interesting, unseen twist on an event most of us remember vividly. Many times throughout the movie I remember being really interested and impressed with the story. In addition, the parts of the movie that were documentary footage were excellent additions. The only other good part of the movie was some (but not all) of the acting done by the queen character and the Tony Blair character.
However, otherwise I thought the movie pretty much sucked. My primary rationale for thinking this was that by far the most interesting parts of the movie were the documentary footage. Each part of the movie that was originally written or acted was worse than the stock footage. Also, extraordinarily little happens in the movie. Although that is kind of the point I realize, it doesn't make for too great a movie...there's only so many times you can see and hear the queen doing nothing. Finally, the stag-metaphor plot line. If you haven't seen the movie, imagine the most over extended and nonsensical metaphor you've ever come across and then quadruple it. This entire addition was a total waste of time.
First, I was extraordinarily pleased that Dreamgirls was not nominated for Best Picture. I had vowed that if it had won I would boycott watching the Oscars for three years, and indeed it now won't. I would have enjoyed explaining why this movie didn't deserve to win but I'm happy to say I don't need that opportunity.
Second, there are several movies I think should have been up there that weren't. The number one movie in this respect was Thank You For Smoking, a really really great movie. This picture got hugely snubbed in the Oscars (should have at minimum received something for the screenplay). Other movies that potentially deserved a best picture nod or at least consideration are An Inconvenient Truth, The Prestige, Casino Royale, The Illusionist, Inside Man, and maybe Children of Men. Although these movies were not the Best Picture, I think all of them are better than certainly two of the nominees.
My own personal rankings of the five movies are as follows, with a short explanation for each to follow.
1. Little Miss Sunshine
T2. The Departed/Letters from Iwo Jima (slight edge to Departed probably)
4. Babel
5. The Queen
5. The Queen: Even though I really don't think this film had any business being so acclaimed and nominated, it had a couple of things going for it. Primarily, the story itself was excellent and an interesting, unseen twist on an event most of us remember vividly. Many times throughout the movie I remember being really interested and impressed with the story. In addition, the parts of the movie that were documentary footage were excellent additions. The only other good part of the movie was some (but not all) of the acting done by the queen character and the Tony Blair character.
However, otherwise I thought the movie pretty much sucked. My primary rationale for thinking this was that by far the most interesting parts of the movie were the documentary footage. Each part of the movie that was originally written or acted was worse than the stock footage. Also, extraordinarily little happens in the movie. Although that is kind of the point I realize, it doesn't make for too great a movie...there's only so many times you can see and hear the queen doing nothing. Finally, the stag-metaphor plot line. If you haven't seen the movie, imagine the most over extended and nonsensical metaphor you've ever come across and then quadruple it. This entire addition was a total waste of time.
First Post
So, I've randomly decided that it would be interesting to create a movie blog. For one, I watch a ton of movies. More importantly, I have fairly strong opinions about most movies. It's certainly possible this will simply fizzle out quickly as an idea, but now for I thought it would be fun to try.
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