Movie season. Yes?
It's what I'm studying here so I may as well.
So from what I can remember, here's what I've seen so far.
1. The White Ribbon - A++
2. Precious - A+
3. (500) Days of Summer - A
4. Inglorious Basterds - A
5. A Serious Man - A
6. Up - A
7. Drag Me to Hell - A-
8. District 9 - A-
9. Where the Wild Things Are - B+
10. Coraline - B
11. Everyone Else - B
12. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - B-
13. An Education - C+
14. 17 Again - C+
15. Easy Virtue - C
16. Push - D
17. Knowing - F
Bear in mind my rating system is pretty useless, it's just a simple way of seeing how everything relates.
Anyway, I saw An Education tonight. Thoughts:
To be perfectly honest, I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of this movie. But I was at least hoping for a nice, atmospheric, cinematic experience. What I ended up with? Meh.
The movie started off way beyond my expectations and is a delicious display of the highest of all this movie's heights. Carey Mulligan immediately steals your heart, her performance running on the fuel of her "cute as a button" energy and likeability in her position of naïvete and vulnerability. Alfred Molina makes you giggle as soon as he thunders out a delivery of a single line and establishes an overpowering dynamic between he and Mulligan that I'm sure Scherfig simply could not have been more pleased with. Saarsgard's character comes along with the perfect charm that makes you believe he could have enticed anyone he wished into his car with full intentions of pulling a Polanski. Their first encounter in the rain was directed by Sherfig with sharp eloquence.
As the movie went on into her actual coming of age and the merging of her new life with David and her old life back home with her parents, the movie started to get a lot more inconsistent for me. The more over the top, expressive facial gestures, and vocal intonations from Molina and Rosamund Pike clashed with the subtleties of Mulligan's girlish giggle and Saarsgard's seductive grin. It was hard for me to decide who was better between Saarsgard and Molina because the (wonderful) performances are tackled so differently in the same context that it's difficult to compare, until seeing their first encounter where I decided that Saarsgard was a lot more convincing in convincing a father to take his daughter out for as late as he wants to than Molina was at being convinced by him. You know? Anyways, not important. The smooth grace of the opening was simply not maintained afterward and by the end nearly fell apart. The editing could have afforded to be more clearer, the cinematography more insistent, the direction more bold.
Mulligan's performance was fine but my enthusiasm for her in the beginning did not hold as she developed her character - it wasn't weak, but simply not as strong. Her persona and delicate presence was perfect to run on the opening on her performance on but she seemed to run out of fuel as she put her hair up. And by the time she had her dramatic and empowering confrontation with her teacher she was decidedly outshone by Olivia Williams' stern performance. In the end, she was only alright at showing her change into adulthood after her experiences were said and done. But, I think any discrepancies in any performance should probably be blamed on Scherfig's not asking enough of her actors, trusting them and depending too much upon them to carry out her film.
Now of course given the nature of this year's Actress selection, she still climbs into my lineup as a strong runner up to Sidibe and could very well stay there for all I know.
One of the brighter spots later in the movie was the montage of Jenny's first visit to Paris, whitewashed with the happiness of the characters and the perfection of their world at that moment. In theory. In terms of craft, however, it ultimately seemed nothing more than a demo for a video software showing you the coolest way to edit your recent vacation photos/home video. Elsewhere in the movie, the random shifts between handicam and steadicam were a bit jarring and out of place while the lower shutter speed/fast editing combo during the horse race was just...bizarre. And at some of the movie's most "dramatic" points, a boring score comes oafishly roaring through.
Ultimately, though...can't say I was a fan.
Before I get to other longer reviews I've written from this year; a nice break. Might I also just mention that my best movie-going experience this year was...well it was probably Precious, but the Toy Story 3D double feature was not very far behind it. At all. Ugh SOOOO good.
Here are some movies I still need to see. November should be a pretty quiet month to get everything I haven't seen already seen. I mean, maybe Jake will drag me to Fantastic Mr. Fox since he's obsessed with Wes Anderson. And then November 25th has both The Princess and the Frog and The Road. I'll probably try to catch Princess before I leave for Thanksgiving and then save The Road for when I get back. Otherwise.
Already out that I'd like to see:
Bright Star
Good Hair
Antichrist
The Hurt Locker
Want to see:
Nine
A Single Man
Mother
Lebanon
Un Prophet
Up in the Air
Will see for the sake of it:
Invictus
Avatar
Don't really care about:
Amelia
The Last Station
The Lovely Bones
Some predictions, before more reviews (I'll explain them in more depth later).
Best Picture:
An Education
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Invictus
Nine
Precious*
A Single Man
Up
Up in the Air
Best Director:
Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker*
Lee Daniels - Precious
Clint Eastwood - Invictus
Rob Marshall - Nine
Jason Reitman - Up in the Air
Best Actor in a Leading Role:
George Clooney - Up in the Air
Matt Damon - The Informant!
Colin Firth - A Single Man
Morgan Freeman - Invictus*
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
Best Actress in a Leading Role:
Helen Mirren - The Last Station
Carey Mulligan - An Education
Gabourey Sidibe - Precious
Meryl Streep - Julie & Julia
Hilary Swank - Amelia*
Best Actor in a Supporting Role:
Matt Damon - Invictus
Alfred Molina - An Education
Christopher Plummer - The Last Station
Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz - Inglorious Basterds*
Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
Marion Cotillard - Nine
Penélope Cruz - Nine
Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
Mo'Nique - Precious*
Julianne Moore - A Single Man
Best Original Screenplay:
(500) Days of Summer
Inglorious Basterds
The Hurt Locker*
A Serious Man
Up
Best Adapted Screenplay:
An Education
Invictus
Precious*
A Single Man
Up in the Air
MORE REVIEWS
Precious (SOME SPOILERS):
It took a while to sink in, too, and realize just to what extent it was. I was most surprised by how incredible the Lee Daniels' direction was; even if Precious doesn't stay my number 1 of the year, I don't see anyone taking him off my Director throne. It was just so relentless and honest - he didn't try to lead the audience to any particular conclusion. He didn't try to make any scene funny, or any scene sad, he just presented the life purely as it was. And, hey, it was what it was. I guess we'll see when I see The White Ribbon on Thursday.
And, obviously, he must be given much of the credit for lifting those performances out of the cast. Sidibe and Mo'Nique were so natural, it was as if those were the performances their own characters would have given. It was like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, except...they aren't really anything like their characters (from what I gather). At this point I must say that Sidibe impressed me a lot more than Mo'Nique, but I think that might just be a case of not having assigned Sidibe to a particular persona like I have with Mo'Nique. But Mo'Nique at her climactic encounter with Mariah Carrey (who was...alright, but particularly great in this sequence. And I totally squeed like a little gay fanboy [an accusation I will not deny] seeing her in the flesh after the screening) was at her most natural and you did not at all see Mo'Nique "acting" here, which seems to be the golden standard.
Few spoilers are in this paragraph:
The part that really annoyed me the most, though...was the NYFF audience. This was my first ever experience with the festival, but are the audiences always this obnoxious?! They were laughing through a great deal of the movie, which...they weren't supposed to. Just because Tyler Perry's name was attached to it does not qualify it being a black comedy. But the general reaction was "HAHA black people!" at a lot of the scenes. But, omfg. At the part where Mo'Nique revealed that Precious' father had died from HIV, and then insisted that she couldn't have contracted the virus because they never did it up the ass, PEOPLE WERE LAUGHING AT THAT LINE. What?! That might as well be the most profoundly disturbing (on just so many levels) line of dialogue in the entire MOVIE and they were LAUGHING. I was mind boggled. And there were parts where they'd gasp, but...lot more laughing than gasping. Which, there really ought not to have been.
I really don't think they...got it. All the parts of Precious fantasizing of higher life, on the red carpet of film premieres, that was representing the very lifestyle of most in the audience. And I, personally, took that scene as a direct challenge to us like that sitting in our seats as Precious returns to her bleak state of reality.
Yeah, sorry for those miserably scattered thoughts. I really don't think it's even sunk in fully yet and you might see my opinion on it tomorrow and in the following months evolve from today's, but that's with everyone. I can't say if I'd recommend it or not because it wasn't even nearly as accessible as I expected it to be - it was just a god's honest window into the life of an entire community. You could just as easily have seen this movie following the lives of one character that you could only see in the background of this one - and had seen Precious in the background instead. I feel like if it starts bulldozing the precursors which I can very well imagine it doing (especially with Mo'Nique) that there will be a LOT of backlash on this board. Like, a lot. I can't see this as a film for everyone. There will obviously even be a lot of backlash against Mo'Nique, but at this point her performance is practically at iconic level without anyone having even seen it so I see nothing taking that statuette from her.
So, yeah. Hm. Ratings. Never really been good with ratings. A+? From the perspective of pure film craft, it is a perfectly fair grade.
District 9 (which 7/10 people on IMDb found not helpful and I can't for the life of me understand why):
From the intriguingly creative ad campaign to the full theater-going experience, this film builds high expectations and blows them out of the water - succeeding in aces across the board in the art of film making. Neill Blomkamp has created a piece that is sure to satiate one's thirst for witnessing as much destruction as possible through heavy action - the last third of the film acts essentially as an extended scene of war - but at the same time accomplishes the absurdly difficult task of imbuing the characters and the storyline with the same amount of heart.
The film most certainly has its shortcomings, and they are worth noting. Stylistically, it's hardly consistent - it opens as a tale told only through faux-archival footage, fit with documentary style interviews and everything - then somehow meanders its way out of this format into a rather normal film narrative shot Cloverfield-style through hand held cameras. Eventually it starts to look like an average Summer action movie, with aliens, before it turns into the opening of Saving Private Ryan. Cut back to the interviews as if you've just abruptly changed the channel from ActionMax to the History Channel. Mind you, up until this point, the transitions have been fairly smooth. But at one point I couldn't help but think that the film just could not make up its mind as to what it wanted to be, aesthetically. It also stuck in my mind how the film convinced me that this general "feel" of movies has so much potential that this film will certainly help to open up, but not completely reach.
But that was before Blomkamp hit us with the film's true emotional punch.
Blomkamp and co-writer Terri Tatchell surely faced a significant dilemma going about this ambitious task of a film: How can you make an audience sympathize, as powerfully as possible, with a completely fictitious species that isn't even meant to be native to this very planet? The results were astounding, to say the least. They made the film virtually a study in sociology - illustrating their situation on Earth to be as reminiscent as possible to grittily realistic scenarios of select groups of people in major urban areas all over the world. They emphasized this parallel at the start of the film and developed it masterfully through the climax as we meet Christopher (or something?), the sort of "head Alien" in charge, and not only find his wit and courage admirable but find him easy to root for after witnessing heart wrenching examples of his paternal instincts. The very fact that I'm describing a non-Earthly-language-speaking and rather hideous looking alien in such a fashion is a testament to the development of character Blomkamp and Tatchell were able to achieve with so little to work with.
Brilliant enough as it is conceptually, the way in which Blomkamp executes it is truly where the mind begins to blow. The blood races and heart falls with one look in the aliens' eyes - their sheer pain and horror and fear soar off the screen and pierce through your soul, compelling every ounce of your being to forever keep your loyalty to them. It's that symbiotic relationship between the surface level visual effects and the psychological thematic undercurrents that shows the true-blue mark of impressive craftsmanship. Your eyes surely ejaculate to the visual feast you see before you, but Blomkamp keeps the visual mastery almost as a background note only revealed in the most of its full-fledged glory to serve the story with such restraint that you'd be hard-pressed to have found this whole Summer. This keeps the film so disturbingly naturalistic that the subtlety of the visual effects, which alone is surely among the best I've ever seen in a film like it, hits your senses so unsubtly like a bulldozer when the film exerts the fullest of its visual strength.
Throw in how painstakingly Blomkamp paces this piece, and just how satisfying he makes many of the death scenes (among the most creative you'll ever see), and all previous flaws I found myself meditating upon are easily forgiven. Anything else that may not be up to par, like the amateurish acting, is not even worth mentioning considering how much the film compensates in virtually every other area. Blomkamp sure knows what he is doing.
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS THUS FAR
:
Picture:
1. The White Ribbon
2. Precious
3. (500) Days of Summer
4. Inglorious Basterds
5. A Serious Man
Director:
1. Lee Daniels - Precious
2. Michael Haneke - The White Ribbon
3. Quentin Tarantino - Inglorious Basterds
4. Coen Bros. - A Serious Man
5. Spike Jonze - Where the Wild Things Are
Actor:
1. Michael Stuhlberg - A Serious Man
2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt - (500) Days of Summer
3. Max Records - Where the Wild Things Are
4. Christian Friedel - The White Ribbon
5. Lars Eidinger - Everyone Else
Actress:
1. Gabourey Sidibe - Precious
2. Carey Mulligan - An Education
3. Birgit Minichmayr - Everyone Else
4. Zooey Deschannel - (500) Days of Summer
5. Alison Lohman - Drag Me to Hell
Supporting Actor:
1. Christoph Waltz - Inglorious Basterds
2. Peter Saarsgard - An Education
3. Richard Kind - A Serious Man
4. Alfred Molina - An Education
5. Fred Melamed - A Serious Man
Supporting Actress:
1. Mo'Nique - Precious
2. Paula Patton - Precious
3. Melanie Laurent - Inglorious Basterds
4. Olivia Williams - An Education
5. Catherine Keener - Where the Wild Things Are
Original Screenplay:
1. The White Ribbon
2. Inglorious Basterds
3. A Serious Man
4. Up
5. (500) Days of Summer
Adapted Screenplay:
1. Precious
2. Where the Wild Things Are
3. An Education
4. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
5. Coraline
Animated Film: Up
Cinematography:
1. The White Ribbon
2. Where the Wild Things Are
3. (500) Days of Summer
4. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
5. Inglorious Basterds
Editing:
1. Where the Wild Things Are
2. A Serious Man
3. The White Ribbon
4. (500) Days of Summer
5. Inglorious Basterds
Art Direction:
1. Inglorious Basterds
2. The White Ribbon
3. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
4. An Education
5. Easy Virtue
Costume:
1. The White Ribbon
2. Inglorious Basterds
3. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
4. A Serious Man
5. An Education
Sound:
1. District 9
2. Up
3. Where the Wild Things Are
4. A Serious Man
5. Push
Sound Editing:
1. Up
2. Push
3. District 9
Visual Effects:
1. Where the Wild Things Are
2. District
3. Push
Makeup:
1. District 9
2. Drag Me to Hell
3. Inglorious Basterds
Score:
1. Up
2. Drag Me to Hell
3. Inglorious Basterds
Voice-Work:
1. Ed Asner - Up
2. James Gandolfini - Where the Wild Things Are
3. Bob Peterson - Up
Best Performance by a Younger Actor:
1. Max Records - Where the Wild Things Are
2. Thibault Sérié - The White Ribbon
Best Ensemble Cast:
1. Precious
2. The White Ribbon
3. Inglorious Basterds
4. An Education
5. Where the Wild Things Are
So from what I can remember, here's what I've seen so far.
1. The White Ribbon - A++
2. Precious - A+
3. (500) Days of Summer - A
4. Inglorious Basterds - A
5. A Serious Man - A
6. Up - A
7. Drag Me to Hell - A-
8. District 9 - A-
9. Where the Wild Things Are - B+
10. Coraline - B
11. Everyone Else - B
12. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - B-
13. An Education - C+
14. 17 Again - C+
15. Easy Virtue - C
16. Push - D
17. Knowing - F
Bear in mind my rating system is pretty useless, it's just a simple way of seeing how everything relates.
Anyway, I saw An Education tonight. Thoughts:
To be perfectly honest, I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of this movie. But I was at least hoping for a nice, atmospheric, cinematic experience. What I ended up with? Meh.
The movie started off way beyond my expectations and is a delicious display of the highest of all this movie's heights. Carey Mulligan immediately steals your heart, her performance running on the fuel of her "cute as a button" energy and likeability in her position of naïvete and vulnerability. Alfred Molina makes you giggle as soon as he thunders out a delivery of a single line and establishes an overpowering dynamic between he and Mulligan that I'm sure Scherfig simply could not have been more pleased with. Saarsgard's character comes along with the perfect charm that makes you believe he could have enticed anyone he wished into his car with full intentions of pulling a Polanski. Their first encounter in the rain was directed by Sherfig with sharp eloquence.
As the movie went on into her actual coming of age and the merging of her new life with David and her old life back home with her parents, the movie started to get a lot more inconsistent for me. The more over the top, expressive facial gestures, and vocal intonations from Molina and Rosamund Pike clashed with the subtleties of Mulligan's girlish giggle and Saarsgard's seductive grin. It was hard for me to decide who was better between Saarsgard and Molina because the (wonderful) performances are tackled so differently in the same context that it's difficult to compare, until seeing their first encounter where I decided that Saarsgard was a lot more convincing in convincing a father to take his daughter out for as late as he wants to than Molina was at being convinced by him. You know? Anyways, not important. The smooth grace of the opening was simply not maintained afterward and by the end nearly fell apart. The editing could have afforded to be more clearer, the cinematography more insistent, the direction more bold.
Mulligan's performance was fine but my enthusiasm for her in the beginning did not hold as she developed her character - it wasn't weak, but simply not as strong. Her persona and delicate presence was perfect to run on the opening on her performance on but she seemed to run out of fuel as she put her hair up. And by the time she had her dramatic and empowering confrontation with her teacher she was decidedly outshone by Olivia Williams' stern performance. In the end, she was only alright at showing her change into adulthood after her experiences were said and done. But, I think any discrepancies in any performance should probably be blamed on Scherfig's not asking enough of her actors, trusting them and depending too much upon them to carry out her film.
Now of course given the nature of this year's Actress selection, she still climbs into my lineup as a strong runner up to Sidibe and could very well stay there for all I know.
One of the brighter spots later in the movie was the montage of Jenny's first visit to Paris, whitewashed with the happiness of the characters and the perfection of their world at that moment. In theory. In terms of craft, however, it ultimately seemed nothing more than a demo for a video software showing you the coolest way to edit your recent vacation photos/home video. Elsewhere in the movie, the random shifts between handicam and steadicam were a bit jarring and out of place while the lower shutter speed/fast editing combo during the horse race was just...bizarre. And at some of the movie's most "dramatic" points, a boring score comes oafishly roaring through.
Ultimately, though...can't say I was a fan.
Before I get to other longer reviews I've written from this year; a nice break. Might I also just mention that my best movie-going experience this year was...well it was probably Precious, but the Toy Story 3D double feature was not very far behind it. At all. Ugh SOOOO good.
Here are some movies I still need to see. November should be a pretty quiet month to get everything I haven't seen already seen. I mean, maybe Jake will drag me to Fantastic Mr. Fox since he's obsessed with Wes Anderson. And then November 25th has both The Princess and the Frog and The Road. I'll probably try to catch Princess before I leave for Thanksgiving and then save The Road for when I get back. Otherwise.
Already out that I'd like to see:
Bright Star
Good Hair
Antichrist
The Hurt Locker
Want to see:
Nine
A Single Man
Mother
Lebanon
Un Prophet
Up in the Air
Will see for the sake of it:
Invictus
Avatar
Don't really care about:
Amelia
The Last Station
The Lovely Bones
Some predictions, before more reviews (I'll explain them in more depth later).
Best Picture:
An Education
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Invictus
Nine
Precious*
A Single Man
Up
Up in the Air
Best Director:
Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker*
Lee Daniels - Precious
Clint Eastwood - Invictus
Rob Marshall - Nine
Jason Reitman - Up in the Air
Best Actor in a Leading Role:
George Clooney - Up in the Air
Matt Damon - The Informant!
Colin Firth - A Single Man
Morgan Freeman - Invictus*
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
Best Actress in a Leading Role:
Helen Mirren - The Last Station
Carey Mulligan - An Education
Gabourey Sidibe - Precious
Meryl Streep - Julie & Julia
Hilary Swank - Amelia*
Best Actor in a Supporting Role:
Matt Damon - Invictus
Alfred Molina - An Education
Christopher Plummer - The Last Station
Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz - Inglorious Basterds*
Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
Marion Cotillard - Nine
Penélope Cruz - Nine
Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
Mo'Nique - Precious*
Julianne Moore - A Single Man
Best Original Screenplay:
(500) Days of Summer
Inglorious Basterds
The Hurt Locker*
A Serious Man
Up
Best Adapted Screenplay:
An Education
Invictus
Precious*
A Single Man
Up in the Air
MORE REVIEWS
Precious (SOME SPOILERS):
It took a while to sink in, too, and realize just to what extent it was. I was most surprised by how incredible the Lee Daniels' direction was; even if Precious doesn't stay my number 1 of the year, I don't see anyone taking him off my Director throne. It was just so relentless and honest - he didn't try to lead the audience to any particular conclusion. He didn't try to make any scene funny, or any scene sad, he just presented the life purely as it was. And, hey, it was what it was. I guess we'll see when I see The White Ribbon on Thursday.
And, obviously, he must be given much of the credit for lifting those performances out of the cast. Sidibe and Mo'Nique were so natural, it was as if those were the performances their own characters would have given. It was like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, except...they aren't really anything like their characters (from what I gather). At this point I must say that Sidibe impressed me a lot more than Mo'Nique, but I think that might just be a case of not having assigned Sidibe to a particular persona like I have with Mo'Nique. But Mo'Nique at her climactic encounter with Mariah Carrey (who was...alright, but particularly great in this sequence. And I totally squeed like a little gay fanboy [an accusation I will not deny] seeing her in the flesh after the screening) was at her most natural and you did not at all see Mo'Nique "acting" here, which seems to be the golden standard.
Few spoilers are in this paragraph:
The part that really annoyed me the most, though...was the NYFF audience. This was my first ever experience with the festival, but are the audiences always this obnoxious?! They were laughing through a great deal of the movie, which...they weren't supposed to. Just because Tyler Perry's name was attached to it does not qualify it being a black comedy. But the general reaction was "HAHA black people!" at a lot of the scenes. But, omfg. At the part where Mo'Nique revealed that Precious' father had died from HIV, and then insisted that she couldn't have contracted the virus because they never did it up the ass, PEOPLE WERE LAUGHING AT THAT LINE. What?! That might as well be the most profoundly disturbing (on just so many levels) line of dialogue in the entire MOVIE and they were LAUGHING. I was mind boggled. And there were parts where they'd gasp, but...lot more laughing than gasping. Which, there really ought not to have been.
I really don't think they...got it. All the parts of Precious fantasizing of higher life, on the red carpet of film premieres, that was representing the very lifestyle of most in the audience. And I, personally, took that scene as a direct challenge to us like that sitting in our seats as Precious returns to her bleak state of reality.
Yeah, sorry for those miserably scattered thoughts. I really don't think it's even sunk in fully yet and you might see my opinion on it tomorrow and in the following months evolve from today's, but that's with everyone. I can't say if I'd recommend it or not because it wasn't even nearly as accessible as I expected it to be - it was just a god's honest window into the life of an entire community. You could just as easily have seen this movie following the lives of one character that you could only see in the background of this one - and had seen Precious in the background instead. I feel like if it starts bulldozing the precursors which I can very well imagine it doing (especially with Mo'Nique) that there will be a LOT of backlash on this board. Like, a lot. I can't see this as a film for everyone. There will obviously even be a lot of backlash against Mo'Nique, but at this point her performance is practically at iconic level without anyone having even seen it so I see nothing taking that statuette from her.
So, yeah. Hm. Ratings. Never really been good with ratings. A+? From the perspective of pure film craft, it is a perfectly fair grade.
District 9 (which 7/10 people on IMDb found not helpful and I can't for the life of me understand why):
From the intriguingly creative ad campaign to the full theater-going experience, this film builds high expectations and blows them out of the water - succeeding in aces across the board in the art of film making. Neill Blomkamp has created a piece that is sure to satiate one's thirst for witnessing as much destruction as possible through heavy action - the last third of the film acts essentially as an extended scene of war - but at the same time accomplishes the absurdly difficult task of imbuing the characters and the storyline with the same amount of heart.
The film most certainly has its shortcomings, and they are worth noting. Stylistically, it's hardly consistent - it opens as a tale told only through faux-archival footage, fit with documentary style interviews and everything - then somehow meanders its way out of this format into a rather normal film narrative shot Cloverfield-style through hand held cameras. Eventually it starts to look like an average Summer action movie, with aliens, before it turns into the opening of Saving Private Ryan. Cut back to the interviews as if you've just abruptly changed the channel from ActionMax to the History Channel. Mind you, up until this point, the transitions have been fairly smooth. But at one point I couldn't help but think that the film just could not make up its mind as to what it wanted to be, aesthetically. It also stuck in my mind how the film convinced me that this general "feel" of movies has so much potential that this film will certainly help to open up, but not completely reach.
But that was before Blomkamp hit us with the film's true emotional punch.
Blomkamp and co-writer Terri Tatchell surely faced a significant dilemma going about this ambitious task of a film: How can you make an audience sympathize, as powerfully as possible, with a completely fictitious species that isn't even meant to be native to this very planet? The results were astounding, to say the least. They made the film virtually a study in sociology - illustrating their situation on Earth to be as reminiscent as possible to grittily realistic scenarios of select groups of people in major urban areas all over the world. They emphasized this parallel at the start of the film and developed it masterfully through the climax as we meet Christopher (or something?), the sort of "head Alien" in charge, and not only find his wit and courage admirable but find him easy to root for after witnessing heart wrenching examples of his paternal instincts. The very fact that I'm describing a non-Earthly-language-speaking and rather hideous looking alien in such a fashion is a testament to the development of character Blomkamp and Tatchell were able to achieve with so little to work with.
Brilliant enough as it is conceptually, the way in which Blomkamp executes it is truly where the mind begins to blow. The blood races and heart falls with one look in the aliens' eyes - their sheer pain and horror and fear soar off the screen and pierce through your soul, compelling every ounce of your being to forever keep your loyalty to them. It's that symbiotic relationship between the surface level visual effects and the psychological thematic undercurrents that shows the true-blue mark of impressive craftsmanship. Your eyes surely ejaculate to the visual feast you see before you, but Blomkamp keeps the visual mastery almost as a background note only revealed in the most of its full-fledged glory to serve the story with such restraint that you'd be hard-pressed to have found this whole Summer. This keeps the film so disturbingly naturalistic that the subtlety of the visual effects, which alone is surely among the best I've ever seen in a film like it, hits your senses so unsubtly like a bulldozer when the film exerts the fullest of its visual strength.
Throw in how painstakingly Blomkamp paces this piece, and just how satisfying he makes many of the death scenes (among the most creative you'll ever see), and all previous flaws I found myself meditating upon are easily forgiven. Anything else that may not be up to par, like the amateurish acting, is not even worth mentioning considering how much the film compensates in virtually every other area. Blomkamp sure knows what he is doing.
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS THUS FAR
:
Picture:
1. The White Ribbon
2. Precious
3. (500) Days of Summer
4. Inglorious Basterds
5. A Serious Man
Director:
1. Lee Daniels - Precious
2. Michael Haneke - The White Ribbon
3. Quentin Tarantino - Inglorious Basterds
4. Coen Bros. - A Serious Man
5. Spike Jonze - Where the Wild Things Are
Actor:
1. Michael Stuhlberg - A Serious Man
2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt - (500) Days of Summer
3. Max Records - Where the Wild Things Are
4. Christian Friedel - The White Ribbon
5. Lars Eidinger - Everyone Else
Actress:
1. Gabourey Sidibe - Precious
2. Carey Mulligan - An Education
3. Birgit Minichmayr - Everyone Else
4. Zooey Deschannel - (500) Days of Summer
5. Alison Lohman - Drag Me to Hell
Supporting Actor:
1. Christoph Waltz - Inglorious Basterds
2. Peter Saarsgard - An Education
3. Richard Kind - A Serious Man
4. Alfred Molina - An Education
5. Fred Melamed - A Serious Man
Supporting Actress:
1. Mo'Nique - Precious
2. Paula Patton - Precious
3. Melanie Laurent - Inglorious Basterds
4. Olivia Williams - An Education
5. Catherine Keener - Where the Wild Things Are
Original Screenplay:
1. The White Ribbon
2. Inglorious Basterds
3. A Serious Man
4. Up
5. (500) Days of Summer
Adapted Screenplay:
1. Precious
2. Where the Wild Things Are
3. An Education
4. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
5. Coraline
Animated Film: Up
Cinematography:
1. The White Ribbon
2. Where the Wild Things Are
3. (500) Days of Summer
4. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
5. Inglorious Basterds
Editing:
1. Where the Wild Things Are
2. A Serious Man
3. The White Ribbon
4. (500) Days of Summer
5. Inglorious Basterds
Art Direction:
1. Inglorious Basterds
2. The White Ribbon
3. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
4. An Education
5. Easy Virtue
Costume:
1. The White Ribbon
2. Inglorious Basterds
3. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
4. A Serious Man
5. An Education
Sound:
1. District 9
2. Up
3. Where the Wild Things Are
4. A Serious Man
5. Push
Sound Editing:
1. Up
2. Push
3. District 9
Visual Effects:
1. Where the Wild Things Are
2. District
3. Push
Makeup:
1. District 9
2. Drag Me to Hell
3. Inglorious Basterds
Score:
1. Up
2. Drag Me to Hell
3. Inglorious Basterds
Voice-Work:
1. Ed Asner - Up
2. James Gandolfini - Where the Wild Things Are
3. Bob Peterson - Up
Best Performance by a Younger Actor:
1. Max Records - Where the Wild Things Are
2. Thibault Sérié - The White Ribbon
Best Ensemble Cast:
1. Precious
2. The White Ribbon
3. Inglorious Basterds
4. An Education
5. Where the Wild Things Are