Best Picture Showcase, Day One
Saturday was a long, but fun day watching four very different movies.
1. Amour (2012)
An old married couple face the indignities of illness, when the woman suffers a stroke that leaves her paralyzed on one side of her body. This is a quiet movie, both in terms of the lack of a sound track and in terms of the quiet moments of one's life, the everyday-ness of living. Beautiful and emotionally honest, this movie is worth watching at least once.
2. Les Miserables (2012)
I've already seen and reviewed Le Mis. Despite of the sing-talk, which is still awkward and still a bit grating, I enjoyed it this second time around. Some of these songs are really fantastic and the acting is great.
3. Argo (2012)
Based on a true story, Argo looks at the events in 1979, when six American diplomats escaped out the back door of the embassy just before the Iran hostage crisis. In order to rescue them, Tony Mendez, a CIA operative, concocts an elaborate ruse, including the invention of a fake movie.
This is one of those "reality is stranger than fiction" kind of stories and Ben Affleck does a great job bringing it to the screen. There are historical inaccuracies, including the downplay of Canada and other country's efforts in the rescue, as well as the up-play of the danger involved to heighten tension. But the people are well portrayed, and the tension throughout the movie, especially in the last moments had me literally white-knuckled and curled up on the edge of my seat, even though I knew ahead of time how the ending would turn out.
With the warning that one should never looking to a feature film for any kind of historical accuracy, I'll say that this is a great movie and highly recommended.
4. Django Unchained (2012)
When a German bounty hunter needs to be able to find three bandits, he tracks down the slave who would recognize them. This leads him to Django, who he offers freedom in exchange for help finding the bandits. Django takes to the bounty hunter business quite readily, and it allows him the skills and knowledge he needs to go looking for and free his wife.
If there's one thing Quentin Tarantino knows how to do, it's make an excellent exploitation movie. In Django Unchained, he takes on slavery and the south, spinning it into a wild, bloody, and humorous western. His dialog is excellent in this movie, as is the skillful timing of the action sequences, which are ingrained with punchy, blood splattered humor. (As a side note to the storytelling, Tarantino really needs to stop appearing in his own movies. It's kind of become a trademark, but he's not really an actor and it gets to be distracting.)
There are plenty of people who have talked about how problematic his portrayal of slavery is, especially in regard to Samuel L. Jackson's character. Tarantino plays with stereotypes, sometimes in problematic ways, sometimes to invert them. Exploitation cinema tends toward the problematic anyway, so I expected that going into it. And I'm always up for a discussion on what works and what doesn't.
At any rate, this was a great movie that I thoroughly enjoyed. Recommended to those who enjoy exploitation movies or blood splattered westerns.
* * *
Each of these movies is great for a vastly different reasons, though I wouldn't call any of them the Best Picture of the year over all the other movies of the year. I'm now very curious to see what I think of next week's line up: Beasts of the Southern Wild, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, and Zero Dark Thirty.
Did you see any of the above movies? Let me know what you thought in the comments.
1. Amour (2012)
An old married couple face the indignities of illness, when the woman suffers a stroke that leaves her paralyzed on one side of her body. This is a quiet movie, both in terms of the lack of a sound track and in terms of the quiet moments of one's life, the everyday-ness of living. Beautiful and emotionally honest, this movie is worth watching at least once.
2. Les Miserables (2012)
I've already seen and reviewed Le Mis. Despite of the sing-talk, which is still awkward and still a bit grating, I enjoyed it this second time around. Some of these songs are really fantastic and the acting is great.
3. Argo (2012)
Based on a true story, Argo looks at the events in 1979, when six American diplomats escaped out the back door of the embassy just before the Iran hostage crisis. In order to rescue them, Tony Mendez, a CIA operative, concocts an elaborate ruse, including the invention of a fake movie.
This is one of those "reality is stranger than fiction" kind of stories and Ben Affleck does a great job bringing it to the screen. There are historical inaccuracies, including the downplay of Canada and other country's efforts in the rescue, as well as the up-play of the danger involved to heighten tension. But the people are well portrayed, and the tension throughout the movie, especially in the last moments had me literally white-knuckled and curled up on the edge of my seat, even though I knew ahead of time how the ending would turn out.
With the warning that one should never looking to a feature film for any kind of historical accuracy, I'll say that this is a great movie and highly recommended.
4. Django Unchained (2012)
When a German bounty hunter needs to be able to find three bandits, he tracks down the slave who would recognize them. This leads him to Django, who he offers freedom in exchange for help finding the bandits. Django takes to the bounty hunter business quite readily, and it allows him the skills and knowledge he needs to go looking for and free his wife.
If there's one thing Quentin Tarantino knows how to do, it's make an excellent exploitation movie. In Django Unchained, he takes on slavery and the south, spinning it into a wild, bloody, and humorous western. His dialog is excellent in this movie, as is the skillful timing of the action sequences, which are ingrained with punchy, blood splattered humor. (As a side note to the storytelling, Tarantino really needs to stop appearing in his own movies. It's kind of become a trademark, but he's not really an actor and it gets to be distracting.)
There are plenty of people who have talked about how problematic his portrayal of slavery is, especially in regard to Samuel L. Jackson's character. Tarantino plays with stereotypes, sometimes in problematic ways, sometimes to invert them. Exploitation cinema tends toward the problematic anyway, so I expected that going into it. And I'm always up for a discussion on what works and what doesn't.
At any rate, this was a great movie that I thoroughly enjoyed. Recommended to those who enjoy exploitation movies or blood splattered westerns.
* * *
Each of these movies is great for a vastly different reasons, though I wouldn't call any of them the Best Picture of the year over all the other movies of the year. I'm now very curious to see what I think of next week's line up: Beasts of the Southern Wild, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, and Zero Dark Thirty.
Did you see any of the above movies? Let me know what you thought in the comments.